Girl Scout cookie sale starts. Cold won't stop troops' weekend setups
Neither "rain nor snow" stops the postman, nor Girl Scouts when they are selling cookies.
The annual Girl Scout Cookie Sale started Thursday. This weekend, despite the snow and frigid temperatures, Girl Scouts in Bucks County and eastern Montgimery County plan to be at their booths at area supermarkets, home improvement stores, restaurants and other locations where fans of their cookies can be found, so long as the weather isn't "dangerous."
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"Usually they try to bundle up and take shifts," said Michele Thompson, Bensalem Service Manager for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.
Some stores invite them inside but she admits "the girls do better outside because we get sympathy. Obviously if it's dangerous, we'll cancel."
But they only have eight weeks to sell the cookies they ordered so they also use Facebook and other social media sites to help. "If we take a weekend off, it affects our cookie inventory," Thompson said.
Nine varieties of Girl Scout Cookies
This year's variety of cookies include nine flavors from traditional favorites like Thin Mints and shortbread Trefoils to a newer Adventureful cookie, tasting like a brownie, topped with a caramel icing and hint of sea salt. And then there's the new in 2022 Toast-Yay, inspired by French toast with icing.
Other popular cookies available include Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Patties and Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Lemonades and a new Caramel Chocolate Chip that is gluten free.
Most cookies cost $5 a box; gluten-free cookies are $6 per box.
Go cookie shopping by ZIP Code
Want to know where to buy cookies? Check out the Eastern Pennsylvania Council's listing of places to shop by ZIP Code.
The listings including dates and times when the Girl Scouts will have booths at local stores and eateries such as the Doylestown Bookshop; Redner's Market and Lowe's, both in Langhorne; Mannino's Pizza in Morrisville; Sauce in Yardley and a host of other locations.
Last year, 14,314 Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania sold 3.84 million boxes of cookies, averaging 269 boxes per girl.
"The proceeds from every box sold in Eastern Pennsylvania stay in our region and help GSEP maintain our beautiful properties, provide financial aid, and keep program and camp costs affordable," the website states.
Thompson said there are 20 troops in Bensalem with more than 250 girls ranging from Daisies in kindergarten to senior Scouts in 12th grade.
Stacey Moyer of Bristol, spokesperson for the Council, said it's a troop-by-troop decision on whether to sell the cookies outdoors when the weather is freezing, but the drive always begins in January and the girls take that into consideration.
"They make sure they bundle up and have opportunities to warm up and take breaks. Safety always comes first," she said.
And girls will use their ingenuity to solve the problem of how to sell the cookies when the weather is dicey.
"I'm sure we'll see some Girl Scout creativity in reaching goals for the sale," Moyer said.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Girl Scout cookies: Where and how to find them in Bucks County, Montco
