Girl Scout cookies are a century-long winter tradition in the U.S.

Seasonal fundraiser teaches skills (and satisfies cravings)

Today's expression:
Explore more: Lesson #743
January 23, 2025:

Every winter, Girl Scouts and their parents fan out across schools, offices, and community events, soliciting orders for cookies. Customers have just one chance per year to satisfy their cravings for Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos, and Samoas. But it’s not just the customers who benefit—the girls learn skills like sales, planning, and customer service, and cookie sales contribute millions to their Girl Scout troops and regional councils.

Take control of your English

Use active strategies to finally go from good to great

Listen

  • Learning speed
  • Full speed

Learn

TranscriptActivitiesDig deeperTalk about it (10)
No translationsEspañol中文FrançaisPortuguês日本語ItalianoDeutschTürkçePolski

Girl scout cookies: a winter tradition

There’s a winter tradition in the United States. After the Christmas trees come down, and after everyone goes back to work in the new year, Girl Scouts and their parents fan out across offices, churches, schools, community events, and private homes, soliciting cookie orders.

Girl Scouts is a youth organization for girls living in the United States. Girls aged 5 to 18 do community service and outdoor activities, and they learn citizenship and life skills.

About 1.7 million girls are involved. But if you say the word “Girl Scouts” to most people in the United States, the number one thing we think of is…cookies.

That’s because the Girl Scouts’ most visible activity is an annual cookie fund-raising drive. Girl Scouts have been selling cookies since 1917. The first troops made cookies at home and sold them in their communities.

Everyone loves a good homemade cookie. But Girl Scout cookies today are big business. Since the 1930s, the Girls Scouts have contracted with large bakeries to produce a standardized set of cookies.

In a typical year, Scouts sell 200 million boxes. (Sorry, cookie fans: these definitely count as processed food!) There are eight core flavors, plus some specialty flavors that can change from year to year. The Girl Scouts raise about $800 million in a short selling season that lasts from about January to April.

The most popular variety—and the best, according to me—is Thin Mints. Thin Mints are peppermint-flavored cookies with a chocolate coating. They have a refreshing flavor with a hint of chocolate. They’re crisp and crunchy. And here’s a hint. Most people eat them at room temperature, but you can also eat them straight out of the freezer. Thin Mints come in a green box; they represent about 25 percent of all Girl Scout cookies sold.

Samoas are donut-shaped, chewy cookies. They taste of caramel, coconut, and just a little chocolate. Do-si-dos are oatmeal sandwich cookies with a peanut butter filling. Tagalongs are vanilla cookies with a peanut butter flavor. Trefoils are shortbread cookies.

In addition to the eight core flavors, there are gluten-free options and specialty flavors, which can change from year to year. A box costs about six dollars.

Convinced? Now you might be ready to try them out, so how do you get them? You cannot get Girl Scout cookies in stores. To get your annual fix, you have to buy them from a Girl Scout directly. And this is where it pays to be part of a community.

In cookie season, Girl Scouts do their best to be as visible as possible. They set up tables at community events, they go door-to-door, they sell them after school, and they enlist some free labor in the form of their parents.

It’s a tradition for moms and dads to bring sign-up sheets to the office. Some parents discreetly place the sign-up sheets in the office kitchen or reception area. Other parents are—shall we say—more active salespeople, going desk to desk and generating as many orders as possible.

When you find a Girl Scout or her parent, you write your name on a sign-up sheet and say how many boxes you want. After all the orders have been collected, the Scouts deliver the boxes to their customers and collect payment.

In case you’re curious, you can’t order cookies from a national website; you have to buy them from a local troop. In many towns, it’s not hard to find a Girl Scout troop to buy cookies from. But it does sometimes take some work.

The boxes cost six dollars each. About 35 percent of that cost goes to the bakeries to pay for production. The rest is split between the local troop that sells the cookies and the regional Girl Scouts council. That money pays for events and activities, and it covers administrative costs like camp maintenance and staff.

But the process of selling the cookies has value to the girls, too. The Girl Scouts organization likes to say that cookie sales are a financial literacy program. They help young girls learn skills like goal setting, decision making, sales, customer service, people skills, money management, and project management.

Jeff’s take

It also teaches the value of restraint among the customers. You can only get Girl Scout cookies in one small window each year. That means, if you want to enjoy Thin Mints in, say, October, you need to plan ahead, order enough, and ration them throughout the year.

This is where I fall short. I just love Thin Mints. Samoas have an interesting flavor; if I’m offered a Samoa, I’ll take it. But Thin Mints are the only kind I buy. The problem is, it’s easy to eat them too fast!

So here’s my tip. Put them in the freezer. Put them in the back, where you can’t see them, behind the frozen fish and meat and blueberries and waffles and whatever else you might have in there. And only take a box out when you have a craving. Pace yourself! The year is long and you have to make your stash last.

Great stories make learning English fun

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

Free trial

We speak your language

Learn English words faster with instant, built-in translations of key words into your language

QuizListeningPronunciationVocabularyGrammar

Free Member Content

Join free to unlock this feature

Get more from Plain English with a free membership


Free trial

Test your listening skills

Improve your listening and learn to understand every word with this interactive listening exercise that gives you immediate feedback


Free trial

Upgrade your pronunciation

Improve your accent with voice-recorder exercise that lets you compare your pronunciation to a native speaker’s

Free trial

Build your vocabulary

Learn how to use advanced English vocabulary in this interactive exercise based on the Plain English story you just heard


Free trial

Improve your grammar

Practice choosing the right verb tense and preposition based on real-life situations



Free Member Content

Join free to unlock this feature

Get more from Plain English with a free membership

Practice writing about this story

Get involved in this story by sharing your opinion and discussing the topic with others

Expression: