Girl Scouts can now sell their cookies online
The Girl Scouts of the USA is taking its cookie racket online with its "Digital Cookie" program. The launch follows years of the organization prohibiting internet sales, and allows girl scouts to sell their cookies around the country for the first time. Of course, as minors are involved, all of the scouts' activity online must be monitored by a parent or guardian, and younger children will be required to use a pseudonym to protect their anonymity.
Today's launch comes after a successful pilot program earlier this year. It's hoped that participants will still use traditional methods -- which are intended to boost their business acumen -- to sell their cookies. Girls will be able to setup websites for automated sales, but the websites will be invite-only: scouts will need to build up a client list and send out invitations themselves. Once they've done that, they'll be able to use video clips and emails to push cookies even on the most distant of relatives.
Whether or not your local scout troop will be offering online cookie sales is down to their regional councils: they'll be choosing between personal websites or a mobile app for girls to use with old-fashioned door-to-door sales. Sellers using the app will be able to process credit card orders, and buyers can also take advantage of the new digital platform, by, for example, getting an embarrassing number of Thin Mints swiftly delivered by a courier instead of hand-delivered by the scout who sold them.
