To fully disclose, I was a Girl Scout Cookie Mom in 2008, which might seem confusing. My wife traditionally filled the role but could not accommodate the local troop, so I was drafted. It is not an easy job because, at the peak, there might be 1,000 boxes of about a dozen cookie types piled onto your dining room table. Once you empty the cartons, you must batch them to let the girls fulfill their sales responsibilities. At the time, cash or checks were the only payment options.
It was not an easy job, but someone had to do it. The worst part was reconciling the cash, which often came in coins and dollar bills.
But, days have changed, and now the credit card comes into play. Some say the change is COVID related, though the scouts seem to be one of the last miles for non-cash payments.
The official Girl Scout site offers local councils the ability to do digital orders. Through the wonders of APIs, they can link local sites into the payment processing function. Since so many people are still hunkering down and do not have the opportunity of buying cookies through their co-worker, the site takes orders and accepts payment, then fulfills the order by email.
Girl Scouts do things right in this technological advancement. While you can buy Girl Scout Thin Mints at Amazon.com., they come with a price: $29.49, with free shipping. At the Girl Scout site, we are in the $4.00, a much more practical solution.
Through its Clover platform, Fiserv covers much of the transaction processing, as the Girl Scout Cookie Program document for Greater Chicago indicates. That is certainly a sound choice.
With the card business integrated into the cookie business, here is a little history on the program, which dates back to 1917, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. It all began as a fundraiser out of a high school cafeteria. After WWII, 29 bakers produced the cookies nationwide, which led up to National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend in 2010.
According to ABC Bakers, every year since 1999, Girl Scout Cookes generated $700 million in revenue, which is undoubtedly a minute fraction of the $75 trillion Fiserv moved in 2019, so rest assured, there will be Thin Mints available for all, where local troops retain 23% of earnings.
And if you need to find where to buy, download the Girl Scout Cookie Finder app for your iOS or Android mobile device. Juliette Low would be proud.
Overview by Brian Riley, Director, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
