Some Girl Scout councils raise cookie prices

As if sticker shock in grocery stores hasn’t been enough, inflation has hit another consumer favorite: Girl Scout Cookies. Since Girl Scouts in New York started their annual cookie sales last week, customers have been paying $7 a box for favorites like Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs, up from $5 last year. “It has been six years since we’ve done a cookie price increase,” said Meridith Maskara, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, which represents 25,000 members across the city’s five boroughs. “Girl Scouts are not immune to the rising costs of life.” Across the country, Girl Scout troops have been seeing jumps in cookie prices over the last couple of years. But they are not all seeing them at the same levels. That’s because the 111 councils that make up the Girl Scouts of the USA operate as individual nonprofit organizations and negotiate separate contracts with the two bakeries that are licensed to manufacture the cookies. The various councils also decide when to sell the cookies. So while cookie prices are climbing to $7 in New York this year, Girl Scouts in some parts of New Jersey, for instance, are charging $6 a box. That’s up from $5 or $5.50 last year. And other councils are not raising prices at all. As the prices of cookies climb, there is some worry that it will result in fewer boxes being sold and less money being available for programming or trips for the girls’ troops. Although in some cases, the higher prices could mean that the money going to the troops will remain roughly flat, even if the number of boxes being sold is less.