Tips & Tricks for Your Best Ever Girl Scout Cookie Season

Depending on your council, you might be gearing up for (or in the middle of) Girl Scout Cookie season!

More than just a reason to stock up on sweet treats, Girl Scouts (and leaders!) around your neighborhood will be flexing their creativity, practicing customer service and business skills, and getting involved in their communities.

If you’re one of the valuable and talented volunteers who will be making cookie season a reality for Girl Scouts and customers everywhere, read on for some tried and true tips, tricks, and reminders to make this cookie season your best yet!

Remember: Girl Scouts Do the Selling

If you have younger girls in your troop, remember that your role is not to sell the cookies personally. Council rules will vary, but in general, the role of the adults at the booth is to hold the money (for safety reasons) and support the girls. 

Selling Girl Scout cookies is a fundraiser and a learning opportunity, but it’s also meant to be fun. Encourage your troop to bring and make signs, speak to customers, make change, and make recommendations. Silly cookie costumes (our troop loved to “wear” the empty cookie cases) are not only fun for the girls, but they are eye-catching for potential customers, too! If the girls have ideas, listen to them, and let them contribute as much as possible. 

Know Your Role (and always check your council rules!)

Clear rules and roles make everything easier, so be sure to figure out what must be done, and who will be responsible. Generally, for booth preparation, you will need:

  • Cookies! Who will be managing the stock, including ordering and storage, and transporting them to and from booths?

  • Tables and any other setups. Do you have a banner? A tablecloth? Signs and sign holders? Cheat sheets for prices and cookie information? Figure out who will be making or curating your supplies, and determine how and who to transport them to and from booths.

  • Money management: who will be responsible for getting change? Depositing cash? Making sure the money makes it to the booth, and back to a leader?

  • Booth scheduling: Who is contacting which locations, setting up times, submitting for approval, and creating a signup for families to use when signing up for a booth?

  • Cookie allocation: Who is responsible for determining how to distribute booth sales, and then doing so? Who will input the sales numbers into your inventory software, and who is responsible for checking that the money matches sales?

  • Volunteers: Who is ensuring that all shifts have the correct number of chaperones or Girl Scouts?

For Girl Scouts, try to embrace everyone’s comfort level with different roles. Some girls will prefer talking to customers and making change while others will want to be in charge of restocking the booth as cookies sell out. Girls can practice their math skills by calculating totals, placing cookies into bags and handing to customers, as well as finding creative ways to attract customers to your booth (cookie costumes and creative signs are fun ways to get everyone involved!).

Plan for the Weather!

Check the weather, and know your climate! A pop-up tent or similar may help in rainy or snowy weather. Leaders or families may have portable heaters that can be provided for cold climates. Remind families to dress appropriately, and keep an eye out for sales on weather gear. Last cookie season, it snowed for almost every cookie booth our troop hosted, and you wouldn’t believe the difference a pair of gloves can make when staying warm. Luckily, I was able to duck inside a Walmart during our cookie booth and found a clearance display of $1 gloves.

Some ideas for weather supplies include:

  • Extra hoodies or jackets to share

  • Gloves and hats or cold weather headbands

  • Hand warmers

  • Hot cocoa or coffee (pay attention to council rules for this)

  • Sunscreen

  • Ponchos

  • Pop-up tents

  • Heavy objects to secure cookies and signs in windy weather

  • Hair ties/clips

  • Water bottles

  • Tissues

  • Hand sanitizer 

Figure Out Your Car Capacity

I didn’t know that I could fit a folding table, 40 cases of cookies, a foldable wagon, a portable outdoor heater, and my kids into my mid-size SUV until I managed a cookie season. Figure out what will make your life easier, and determine how to best fit everything you need into your vehicles.

Take Notes, and Save This Year’s Information

There are some things you just won’t “know” until you experience them. Unfortunately, cookie data is not always available year after year, either due to technology challenges, or changes to the program, so try to keep a record of important information like:

  • How many cookies you ordered for your troop’s inventory

  • Your favorite booth locations, dates, and times

  • Shift lengths that worked for each Girl Scout level– Daisies may not last as long as older Girl Scouts, for example, and knowing this can help with future planning

  • Parents that may be interested in taking on a greater role next cookie season

  • What information is most helpful to you at booths– I designed a Cookie Booth Inventory sheet with a layout based on our troop’s experience with the past several cookie seasons. It is flexible enough to allow taking notes, recording shifts of Girl Scouts who participated, and more. You can download that here, and use code SUBURBS24 for a special discount for blog readers!

  • Things that the Girl Scouts particularly enjoyed, like accessories, certain jobs, cookie costumes, and more

Be Flexible

This is the most important rule of them all! Remember that no two troops and no two cookie seasons are the same. If something is not working, come up with ways to make it simpler or more effective.

Try not to be overwhelmed by cookie season horror stories, or jokes about “cookie math”, and don’t be afraid to ask for help! Other leaders, social media groups for Girl Scout volunteers, and your Service Unit are available to help you. You might find that certain aspects of cookie sales work better for your troop than others, and it’s okay to pick and choose (while keeping it girl-led, of course!) how you participate.


Above all, remember why you are Girl Scout volunteer. It’s not about being the troop that sold the most, or about being “better” than other troops in your area. It’s about creating and funding valuable experiences for youth in your community.

Click to get your downloadable Cookie Booth inventory sheet, for ABC or LBB Bakers.

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