SPOKANE, Wash. — Girl Scouts are the latest victim of inflation and economic troubles, as cookie sales have been impacted by the state of the economy.
Across the U.S., Girl Scout cookie prices are ranging from $5 to $7 per box in 2024.
In Western Washington, cookie prices have gone up to $6 a box. However, in Eastern Washington and in North Idaho, a box Girl Scout cookie prices stayed at $5.
“It has been a challenge…I’ll call this year our ‘miracle budget,’ because we haven’t raised prices since 2016,” Brian Newberry, the CEO of The Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington & North Idaho, said. “This year, we really worked hard to keep it $5. Everywhere around us has been $6. But we really want to do $5 as long as we can, because it helps not only the consumer who loves our Girl Scout cookies, [but] it helps the girl right there just to sell more cookies.”
Newberry told NonStop Local that over the last two years, his scouts have sold over one-million cookies.
In 2024, cookie season pre-sales began in February.
“Pre-sale” means the Girl Scouts go door-to-door and provide flyers or business cards with Q-R codes that direct customers to pre-order cookies online.
Newberry claims that so far, 200,000 cookies have been sold.
But, according to parents of the Girl Scouts, sales are significantly down this year.
“Pre-sales have been down,” Jennifer Steel, a parent of a Girl Scout in Spokane, said. “And I don’t know if that’s just following the economy in general. Last year, our girls each sold like 300 boxes pre-orders. And this year, they were all about 60 boxes pre-orders, despite going door-to-door and to local businesses. It’s just hard, especially when you have multiple kids,”
One Spokane mother of a Girl Scout told NonStop Local in a Facebook message that despite cookie prices not going up, sales have been a struggle.
“The prices of cookies hasn’t gone up this year, but it does seem like there are more people who cannot afford to support Girl Scouts anymore due to the cost of living [these] days,” the mother of the Girl Scout said.
While Eastern Washington and North Idaho made it through 2024 without raising cookie prices, that likely won’t be the case for long.
“Prices will probably be going up next year ’cause they had to fight really hard this year to keep it down. They’re still going to fight. They’re going to do what they can to try to keep it down,” Desiree Dean, a mother of a Spokane Girl Scout, said.
The Girl Scouts will begin selling cookies at booths in front of storefronts on March 22.
