COVID-19 pandemic encourages innovative Girl Scout cookie sales
Pandemic encourages innovative Girl Scout cookie sales
It's Girl Scout cookie season! Hailey Winslow talks to some Girl Scouts about how they got creative with selling their cookies during a pandemic.
LOS ANGELES - "Cookie time" normally means Girl Scouts selling thin mints and tagalongs outside grocery stores and around their neighborhoods.
But the COVID-19 crisis has encouraged 12-year-old, once shy, Saela Johnson, now known as the "Cookie Boss," and her fellow "Scouts" to be a bit more creative, pushing sales online, to hone their digital marketing skills.
The Girl Scouts put their QR codes on door hangers and yard signs, so customers can order their cookies quickly and safely. They also now offer pre-orders and curbside pick-up, in addition to direct delivery.
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"Go-getter, innovator, risk-taker and a leader," smiles Saela proudly. "Be bold and be bright!"
For 10-year-old Gable Fialkov, using social media to sell cookies has been key. "Facebook Lives and posting stuff on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter," says Gable.
To her, being a Girl Scout over the past six years means "to help people and do as much good in the world as you can."
Selling cookies also teaches the girls' goal-setting, decision-making, money management, people skills and business ethics.
As Saela sings and dances in cookie sales videos, sometimes with her mom as her back-up performer, the most valuable life lesson the straight-A, 4.0 seventh-grader has learned in the pandemic about succeeding as a Girl Scout and in life is "be yourself!"
"Buy some cookies, support the girls, because everyone knows we run the world," Saela sings. "Girls, girls we run the world!"
Saela’s troop is using their cookie money toward a trip to Paris next year and Gable’s troop is supporting local animals in need.
Cookies cost $5 per box. You can order them at www.GirlScouts.org.
If you would like to specifically support Gable Fialkov, go to Select - Girl Scouts (gsdigitalcookie.com) and to support Saela Johnson go to Select - Girl Scouts (gsdigitalcookie.com).
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