Girl Scouts have 15 million boxes of unsold cookies; local CEO declines comment on impact for local programs

The Girl Scouts are struggling to sell 15 million boxes of unsold cookies.

The New York Times reported in June that cookies are stuck in warehouses because membership has declined and the scouts were not able to perform their usual in-person selling efforts. Around 12 million of the 15 million surplus cookies never left bakery warehouses in Kentucky and Indiana, the Girl Scouts said in a prepared statement.

“Given that a majority of cookies are sold in person by girls at booths or other face-to-face methods, a decrease in sales was to be expected,” Kelly Parisi, a Girl Scouts spokeswoman, said in the statement.

Muddy River News asked Pam Kovacevich, chief executive officer with the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois based in Springfield, for an interview to address the local impact of decline in cookie sales.

“Thanks anyway, but I’ll pass,” Kovacevich replied in an email.

The Girl Scouts of Central Illinois serves 13,000 girls in 38 counties, including Adams, Brown, Hancock and Pike.

The national organization sells around 200 million boxes per year at about $5 a box. Many Girl Scout troops around the nation adopted a digital sales program in 2010.

ABC News recently reported that the Boy Scouts of America’s Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA programs dropped from 1.97 million in 2019 to 1.12 million in 2020, a 43 percent plunge, according to figures provided to The Associated Press. Court records show membership has fallen further since then, to about 762,000.

The Girl Scouts say their youth membership fell by nearly 30 percent, from about 1.4 million in 2019- 2020 to a little more than 1 million this year.

The Girl Scouts reported youth membership of about 2.8 million in 2003. The BSA had more than 4 million boys participating in the 1970s.