Local Girl Scout troops face cookie-selling challenges

PHOTO: Amid the pandemic, local Girl Scout troops turn to online platforms to sell cookies this year (Courtesy: A. Herrera).

By Grace Kishiyama,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff-

Due to COVID-19, local Girl Scout troops have opted to either not sell cookies this year, or sell cookies with modifications.

Prior to Feb. 23, Yolo County was in the purple tier, meaning that booth sales were not permitted. However, now that Yolo County has moved to the red tier, troops are allowed to begin doing booth sales.

“Many troops remain in a virtual meeting state and are uncomfortable holding booths. We just this week were able to give the go ahead to troops to host booths in Davis at the CVS (on Covell near Nugget), as well as at PDQ in downtown Davis,” said Brenda Cameron, Davis Service Unit Team Coordinator and Cookie Sales Manager.

Some troops have also opted to only participate in the “digital cookie world.” Each troop is granted a digital cookie link, which they are encouraged to share via social media sites, which will give the customer the option to have the cookies directly shipped to them or to have the cookies delivered by a troop.

Though direct ship orders in Davis are up, sales overall are much lower than prior to the pandemic.

“ […] The number of direct ship orders in Davis is currently about 5 times what they were for all of 2020.  However our overall sales are lacking as girls have been unable to do in person/door to door sales,” Cameron said. 

While many local troops have decided to only take part in the digitized cookie selling, some Davis High students say their troops have opted to not take part in cookie sales of any sort this year.

Sophomore Malia Peris is a part of Troop 31288, which is located in Fairfield. 

“We decided as a troop not to sell cookies this year because of [COVID-19 …] also because our troop are top sellers, we have so much money leftover from last year to keep us doing whatever we want,” Peris said.

Similarly, junior Elise Wyman’s troop has decided not to sell cookies this year either. Wyman is in Troop 1752 which is located in Davis.

“Because of the pandemic, it was just too complicated to do site sales this year so we just decided not to, […] we care more about being able to do it safely and not worry about selling during the pandemic,” Wyman said.

Those interested in buying Girl Scout cookies are still able to buy them at booths around town. “People can locate in-person booths by using the national GS Cookie finder  (www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/cookies.html).  Just type in the zip code and it will pull up the location and times a troop should be out selling,” Cameron said. “It will also give you an option to buy in a virtual booth sale from a local troop, but that would possibly include having to have the cookies shipped to you which involves a shipping charge.”