Those Girl Scout cookies? You guessed it: Big business

Megan Hitch had two and a half cases of Girl Scout Cookies left to sell in her cookie career. Sitting at her booth outside a Kroger grocery store in Riverdale, Ga., on a recent sunny afternoon, Hitch, an 18-year-old Senior Girl Scout, and her younger sister sought to sell the remainder of the 1,620 boxes they had ordered for this year’s sale. From such humble beginnings do corporate giants like McDonald's grow.

“Selling cookies teaches the American system of business,” said Courtney Q. Shore, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the Girl Scouts of the USA in New York City.

And the Girl Scouts like to get down to business. Each of the country’s 313 Girl Scout councils--the regional governing body for a collection of anywhere from 100 to 18,000 troops--is an independent corporation. While the national office issues the basic rules for the annual cookie sale, details like the baker used, the price per box and how the revenue will be distributed are decided by the individual councils with the intention of teaching the girls financial literacy and business basics.

“I’ve learned about supply and demand,” Hitch said. “I have learned what you need to order based on previous years and how to count money.”

An estimated 130 million to 200 million boxes of cookies are sold each year. With an average price of $3.50 a box, gross sales for Girl Scout Cookies, which are generally only sold from January through March, range from $455 million to $700 million annually.

Hitch is a member of the Girl Scout Council of Northwest Georgia. Last year, the council, one of the top 10 cookie sellers in the nation, sold nearly 3.4 million boxes. As the 2006 cookie season winds down and the troops from Atlanta to the Tennessee border submit their figures, there are indications that this year's revenue will top last year's.

Selling cookies started in 1917 as a way for the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Okla., to raise money. At the time, Girl Scouts baked the cookies with their mothers at home. Today, the cookies have left Mom’s kitchen.

For more than 25 years, the Kellogg-owned Little Brownie Bakers has licensed the Girl Scout name and the trefoil design, just as Interbake Food’s ABC Bakers has done since 1939. Each year, the two companies compete for cookie contracts from the individual councils.

Providing flashy marketing strategies, broadly applicable themes like “Be Brilliant” or “Explore” and a slew of additional support materials, the bakers are a seasonal supplier and year-round consultant for the Girl Scout Cookie campaign.

“We do compete for the business,” said Sherry Sybesma, senior vice president of ABC Bakers and a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts. “Each council makes their own decisions and each has their own set of priorities.”

According to Denise Mitchell, Little Brownie Bakers’ senior director of marketing and communications, each Girl Scout council considers the annual marketing program and “other special value-added business services” when chooding a baking partner. But perhaps the most important consideration of all is the quality of the cookie itself.

Each baker produces eight varieties of cookies. Each bakery is required to supply the wildly popular staples, though they may vary slightly in name or recipe: Thin Mints, Samoas, Caramel deLites, Tagalongs, Peanut Butter Patties, Do-si-dos, Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Trefoils or Classic Shortbreads. In addition, each bakery is allowed three wild cards. Often, these address popular dietary trends like the recent attention given to trans fats. In this instance, Little Brownies has countered with Lemon Coolers and ABC with Cartwheels, both of which have zero trans fats.

Although the selection of the baker, the negotiating of their contract and the setting of prices is primarily the responsibility of the adult volunteers and Girl Scout staffers, some troops will bring older Girl Scouts to sales pitches and strategy conferences. But the girls’ primary responsibilities are setting individual and troop goals, and most important, making the sale, or "the ask."

The Girl Scouts do not condone parents selling cookies at work for their daughters, although they know it happens. And door-to-door sales are increasingly less common because of safety concerns. But booth sales in public venues like universities and office buildings have proved highly profitable.

Selling on the Internet is not permitted. However, some troops encourage girls to send e-mail messages to their family and friends to announce a sale and solicit pre-orders. And many councils are using their Web sites to broadcast cookie sales announcements and locations.

The annual Girl Scout Cookie sale is responsible for 34 to 41 percent of a council's working budget. Like many business structures, the Girl Scouts employ incentives to motivate sales. In most troops, selling 75 boxes earns a badge, selling 1,000 earns two weeks at camp. The revenue from the cookies is used to pay the bakers and is then divided between the council and the troop to pay for activities and salaries throughout the year.

The program's success has influenced organizations like Camp Fire USA and the Boy Scouts of America.

"The Girl Scouts are a good example of what an organization can do if they have a good product and a good name," said Chris Shelby, director of field services for Baltimore's Boy Scout Council. The Boy Scouts sell about $65 million worth of popcorn annually. Camp Fire USA sells $51,467 in candy. But no one has touched the $700 million raised by Girl Scout Cookies.

“The Girl Scouts are very good business people,” Sybesma said, “and very aware that they have a responsibility to be good stewards. Every penny they spend results in good things for the girls.”

E-mail: meo2105@columbia.edu