Pandemic forces Girl Scouts to find new places to sell cookies

The pandemic has forced Girl Scouts to find different locations for their annual cookie sales as large retail- ers and shopping malls have not allowed them to set up due to social distancing protocols.

An Englewood cafe owner is one of several Dayton area small businesses that allowing Girl Scouts to sell cookies outside his business.

“Kids have been the most affected. I know businesses have shut down left and right, but kids they don’t know much and then all of a sudden the life that they did know is flipped upside down. So we’re trying to give them a little sense of normalcy,” said Dillion James Allen, managing director of Café 19.

Allen was connected to some of the Girl Scouts troop leaders as they would stop by for coffee. He reached out to them and told them they were welcome to use their space as an alternative this year.

“We put them at the end of the drive thru so you get your coffee and then you go buy the cookies and continue on,” he said.

After a slow start, the girls sold out last weekend in two hours.

Café 19 isn’t the only business looking to help the young girls as other local businesses including clothing boutique Palette of Threads have agreed to host the scouts at different times throughout the day.

The girl scouts will return to Café 19 at 19 W. National Road Saturday between 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. if they don’t sell out.

The easiest way to find out where a Dayton-area troop is selling cookies this weekend is to visit the Girl Scouts website. By entering your zip code, you can find the nearest troop selling cookies.