NORFOLK, Va. — According to the Girl Scouts of America, the earliest sales of Girl Scout cookies began in 1917 with a simple batch of sugar cookies sold in a school cafeteria as part of a service project.
Over the next decade, the idea of a bigger fundraiser spread as they started bagging, and eventually boxing, the cookies.
By the 1930s, Greater Philadelphia had taken sales to the next level by becoming the first council to sell the commercially baked cookies.
Then came the licensing- they were produced and sold all over the nation, and different varieties became available.
The standards were all in place by the mid-70s -- Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwich – now known as Do-Si-Dos or Peanut Butter Patties, and Trefoils, or Shortbread depending on where you live.
Some say, however, it’s the marketing that makes Girl Scout cookies what they are today.
The cookies have never been available in grocery stores or gas stations, and the sales are restricted to a small window each year. Which, by the way, is going on right now here in Hampton Roads.
It’s that idea that they’re scarce, or at least that they seem scarce, that makes most of us load up every time they’re available.
Not to mention, it is, at its core, a fundraiser that goes towards a good cause. That’s why it’s become the largest entrepreneurial program for girls in the world.