I was the girl who hit up teachers before anyone else had a chance, the co-worker’s daughter who showed up in person before it became the norm to pass around the order form. Camping was fun, but nothing beat the joy of watching my order form fill with names as I went from door to door in my apartment building until I reached the bottom.
If I did not finish the season with at least two order forms, I had failed.Plenty has changed since I left the game more than a decade ago. For the first time this cookie season, some Girl Scout troops are using online ordering in addition to paper forms as part of the new Digital Cookie program. Part of me is jealous, but mostly, I’m skeptical. What about the value of the face-to-face sale? Would that get lost in digital interactions?
I don’t remember setting goals beyond “sell the most in my troop,” which I usually did. Winning badges, pins and bragging rights was good enough for me. But I like to think the people skills that went into making a sale somehow helped prepare me for adulthood. I’m no Luddite, but I can’t help but wonder whether today’s “digital cookie entrepreneurs” miss out on that experience.
To find out, I attended a recent cookie rally in Atlanta hosted by the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta — such rallies being another facet of the program that did not exist when I was growing up.
I met Elizabeth Carr and her 12-year-old daughter, Katie, before the rally. Katie would be attending Cookie University, a program for older Scouts introducing them to the financial and marketing aspects of running a business.
Carr, a troop leader and service unit director, was hoping to pick up tips on how to lead her girls to better sell cookies. She was also hoping Katie would learn how to make the most of the new online platform so she could share the knowledge.
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“We’re in the technology age, and we have to move with the times,” she said as girls walked past her into the booths filled with tables.
That’s where Digital Cookies comes in handy, said volunteer Victoria Cooper. They provide girls with real-time sales figures, allowing them to track the progress of their goals and adjust marketing strategies.
“From kindergarten to fifth grade, the cute faces sell cookies. As you get older, it gets harder. You’ve got to be able to sell cookies,” Cooper said.
Elizabeth’s Carr daughter, Katie, acknowledged this harsh reality. That’s why she likes the idea of the digital profiles, so people can learn more about who she is and her goals. Her biggest gripe so far is that her ability to customize the profile is limited by the template and that because she is under 13, her mother controls it, not her.
Her troop wants to spend its cookie money on camping and ziplining this summer. They earn 55 cents from each box sold, and ziplining costs $50 per girl, which is why her individual goal is 1,000 boxes. Her profile shows a picture of her smiling next to her favorite horse, Moon, at Girl Scout camp.
That’s more information than my customers ever learned about me. I wonder if it would have earned me a better prize.
