Yes, Girl Scout cookies will now be available to order online — but not in Toledo.
Eighty-nine of the 112 Girl Scout councils in the U.S. are participating in the new Digital Cookie option, according to the Girl Scouts website.
However, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, which encompasses 32 counties in western Ohio and southeast Indiana, including Lucas County, opted out of participating this year, said communications and marketing manager Amanda Aldrich.
“While Digital Cookie represents an exciting enhancement of the iconic Girl Scout Cookie Program, the virtual sales platform that launches in the 2014–2015 cookie season is simply phase one of what will become a much broader and more robust program, and Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is not among the councils participating in this initial phase of the program,” Aldrich wrote in an email to Toledo Free Press.
“Girls from our council will still be participating in traditional booth and door-to-door sales of Girl Scout Cookies this coming year, and hungry cookie customers will still be able to buy all their favorite treats in the usual varieties from local girls. Selling cookies teaches girls valuable skills like goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics — aspects essential to leadership, success, and life. We will evaluate phase one of the Digital Cookie platform at the end of the cookie season and make a decision about its implementation in our council for the following year.”
Digital Cookie offers two sales platforms: Via email, which invites users to visit a personalized cookie website to order online or via in-person orders using a mobile app that allows for credit card processing and direct shipping.
Among regional councils offering digital sales are Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan and Girl Scouts of North East Ohio.
Northwest Ohioans who know a Girl Scout from a council participating in online selling can receive an emailed invitation from that scout and have their cookies shipped for a fee. For safety reasons, online sales are only available via invitation to a personalized cookie website to someone the scout knows, according to the Girl Scouts website. As with the traditional cookie sales, funds raised from online cookie sales with stay with the local council operating the sale.
Digital sales start in mid-December. Traditional sales start mid-January.
For more information or to find a local location selling Girl Scout cookies, visit girlscouts.org.
