Fact Check

Do the Girl Scouts Have Millions of Unsold Cookies?

The pandemic did not lend itself to door-to-door cookie sales.

Published June 14, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC JANUARY 13, 2017-The new Smores Girl Scout cookies from the Girl Scouts two bakeries: ABCs version is on the left, and Little Brownie Bakers cookie is on the right. (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post via Getty Images) (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Image Via Maura Judkis/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Claim:
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America have millions of unsold cookies.

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America have millions of unsold cookies from 2020, and they need to get rid of them fast. Kelly Parisi, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of the USA, told The Associated Press that around 15 million boxes of cookies remained unsold at the end of last year's cookie season. Some 12 million of those boxes remain with the companies that baked them: Kentucky-based Little Brownie Bakers and Brownsburg, Indiana-based, ABC Bakers, AP reported.

“This is unfortunate, but given this is a girl-driven program and the majority of cookies are sold in-person, it was to be expected,” Parsi said. Girl Scouts set up booths in early spring, AP reported, a time when coronavirus cases were near their peak in the United States in 2020.

Because the Girl Scouts of the USA have confirmed this fact, we rank the claim "True."

Alex Kasprak is an investigative journalist and science writer reporting on scientific misinformation, online fraud, and financial crime.