Alex Johannesen, 8, tries to sell Girl Scout cookies from the trunk of her mom’s car in Lafayette. Although no one stopped to buy cookies, she was able to sell one box while wandering the stands at a Little League game.
After the pandemic disrupted last year’s Girl Scout cookie season, Alex Johannesen was determined to sell hundreds of boxes this winter. But the Lafayette third-grader was thwarted by two challenges beyond her control: supply-chain issues and DoorDash.
A labor shortage at a Kentucky bakery led to Bay Area Girl Scouts like Alex scrambling to find cookies earlier this month. Mere weeks after cookie sales began, Alex sold out of her entire supply, apart from three boxes of Lemon-Ups. With seemingly no more cookies available in the region, she had to turn down family friends who wanted Thin Mints or Samoas.
But then her mom, Liz Johannesen, found something frustrating on her phone. While she couldn’t get more cookies for her daughter to sell, she found every single kind of cookie available on DoorDash. And the company would deliver that same day to her Lafayette home from Concord, three towns away, for just $3.99.
Girl Scouts’ partnership with DoorDash allowing troops to sell cookies on the delivery platform is new this year — essentially a digital version of the familiar green-adorned cookie booths set up outside BART stations and grocery stores. But not all girls were given the chance to participate.
DoorDash left that decision up to Girl Scouts, which limited the program to Scouts in the fourth grade or above in an effort to be age-appropriate, according to Christine Dhondt, senior director of product programs for Girl Scouts of Northern California. In regions with many troops, some local leaders decided to restrict use of the app further to older Scouts. That left some parents confused as to why their daughters didn’t have that option.
Alex Johannesen, 8, and mom Liz Johannesen set up an unofficial Girl Scout cookie booth in Lafayette. Because of cookie shortages, they didn’t have any cookies to sell at their previously assigned booth.
Johannesen said this year’s cookie season feels like “a perfect microcosm of the Silicon Valley ethos.” Certain people, she said, have access to technology that can boost sales. And sometimes, those same people can afford to commit to $1,000 worth of cookies in anticipation of a shortage.
“It was not the education I was expecting to give to my daughter from Girl Scouts about fairness and access and bridging the digital divide, but it’s definitely an education in how business works in our country today,” Johannesen said.
According to Dhondt, just a tiny fraction — maybe 1% — of Girl Scout troops in the region are selling on DoorDash this year. A DoorDash spokesperson said the collaboration came out of a mutual desire “to empower local economies,” which is why DoorDash waived its usual fees on Scout sales. In Northern California, cookie sales dropped from $4.6 million in 2020 to $2.6 million in 2021, but Dhondt said sales are expected to be better this year. The Girl Scout cookie business is significant: In a typical year, the national organization sells around $800 million, or approximately 200 million boxes, of cookies.
While the cookie shortage and the DoorDash situation are unrelated, their simultaneous appearance is stressing out some parents and sparking some speculation tying them together.
Mom Liz Johannesen found a greater selection of Girl Scout cookies for sale on DoorDash.
“You got the big corporation with all the money behind it, and on the other hand, you have 8-year-olds standing outside Safeway with no cookies and they look sad,” said Alex Kao of Lafayette, whose eighth-grade daughter in Lafayette is not participating in the DoorDash program. He couldn’t recall whether his daughter’s troop had explored the DoorDash option.
Kao has been the official cookie coordinator for his daughter’s troop for six years and said he’s never seen cookie cupboards — the volunteer-run home garages where Scouts can restock on cookies — empty all over the Bay Area. The major concern, he said, is that cookie sales are the key fundraiser for troops. If there aren’t cookies to sell, Scouts may not be able pay for activities later this year, like visiting a museum, going horseback riding or organizing a community event.
Kao was somewhat relieved to hear that it was Scouts selling cookies on DoorDash, not the delivery giant itself. But he said it didn’t ultimately matter whether some troops were excluded.
“Everyone should have equal access to fundraising,” he said.
Girl Scouts Gwendolyn Parden (left), Lisa Newman, Rose Hebert and Sophie Kestel prepare an online cookie order through DoorDash in Albany. The DoorDash program is new for Girl Scouts this year.
True equity, though, might not be realistic. Dina Solnit, a troop leader in San Jose for fifth- and eighth-graders, said she can’t imagine younger kids handling the responsibilities of DoorDash sales well. When an order comes through the delivery service, Scouts must review it, confirm it, package the cookie order and label it. They also need to keep track of several orders at a time while communicating with drivers — and, potentially, with DoorDash if something goes wrong.
One time, Solnit said, a driver couldn’t find her troop and the Scouts had to explain their location — a parking lot — over the phone in Spanish. To her, that’s a high level of customer service and, Solnit said, parents aren’t supposed to get too involved.
“It’s hard for a fifth-grader to do it,” she said. “It’s hard to multitask. They’re kids. They’re like, ‘Oh, there’s a pretty bird.’ I’m like, ‘OK, focus.’”
Girl Scout Gwendolyn Parden hands an online order to delivery driver Binod Bhandari. Her troop sold Girl Scout cookies through DoorDash in Albany on Saturday.
For Solnit’s daughters, Arrow and Miri, the DoorDash program has been a hit. It’s now their preferred way to sell cookies. On a busy Saturday, they sold 250 boxes, comparable to the result of a prime slot outside a popular grocery store, Solnit said. But they love the fast pace and the technology, she said, like the dinging sound when an order comes in.
In a way, the passionate debate around DoorDash reflects the competitive spirit that often arises during cookie season, which this year ends March 27.
Emily Peters, a troop leader in San Francisco, said she’s long heard stories about conflicts between Girl Scout troops over territory and tactics, though she’s rarely encountered it herself. That might be because San Francisco leaders divide up cookie-booth slots in “an elaborate draw system, like the NFL draft,” she said, which is designed to avoid squabbles. For her troop, cookie season is primarily about fun. For others, it’s a major fundraising effort to pay for trips.
Alex Johannesen, 8, arranges Girl Scout cookies in the trunk of her mom’s car in Lafayette. She wondered why she wasn’t allowed to sell on DoorDash, according to her mom.
Girl Scouts official Dhondt said the organization will seek feedback on the sales program for next year, though she’s unaware of any planned changes.
Immediate feedback from several parents was that it’s difficult to compete with DoorDash’s $3.99 same-day delivery fee when their daughters have to rely on a Girl Scouts website that offers shipping nationwide for $12.99, delivered in up to 15 business days. In an email to a Girl Scouts official, Johannesen suggested DoorDash lower its delivery radius on cookies so troops aren’t selling to buyers several cities away who could be supporting a local Scout instead.
Kate Foster, whose 6- and 8-year-olds are both Scouts, said it’s been tough seeing her kids, who sell the old-fashioned way, not reach their goals this year. They won’t get new patches to sew on their uniforms.
“The tricky thing,” Foster said, “is balancing the use of technology and being entrepreneurial, but also making it fair for all Girl Scouts.”
Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
Janelle Bitker spearheads The San Francisco Chronicle’s Food & Wine department. She joined the newspaper in 2019 as a food enterprise reporter, covering restaurants as well as Bay Area culture through a food lens. Previously, she served as a reporter for Eater SF, managing editor at the East Bay Express, and arts & culture editor at the Sacramento News & Review. Her writing has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Association of Alternative Newsmedia.
