The Costly Cookie Craving
With inflation on the rise, the price of Girl Scout cookies is following suit. Well, in some places. For instance, Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson, Texas, Oklahoma Plains, and Eastern Massachusetts have already declared they are increasing the costs of Girl Scout cookies by 20%. This means the cookies, such as Do-si-dos, will cost us more dough. Originally $5, Girl Scouts will sell them at $6.
The adjusted price results from the increasing costs of the ingredients to make these cookies. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports, ingredients such as flour and prepared flour prices rose 19% in 2022, whereas the average annual increase over the past decade was just 0.2%. Meanwhile, the price of sugar has also been increasing. In September of this year, sugar was the most expensive it has been in twelve years. However, despite sugar’s rise in price, I am sure the demand for it will remain stable.
What is going on with inflation rates? According to this Trading Economics graph of inflation rates over the past five years, inflation hit a forty-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 after moving in an upwards trend since 2020. However, after hitting that high, it slowly decreased. Inflation rates reached as low as 3% in June 2023, but now they look to be increasing again as they hover around 3.7%.
As inflation rises, the consumers’ purchasing power erodes. For Girl Scout Cookies, at a time, $20 was used to get us four boxes of cookies. Now, $20 will only get us three boxes and an extra $2. We buy less with the same amount of money. In addition, the rising inflation rates put pressure on wages. Inflation creates a higher cost of living, so people who make the cookies will need to be paid higher wages, which means the labor cost will increase.
Now, Girl Scout cookies are not the only ones increasing their price. According to inflation data pooled by the U.S. Labor Department, the cost of store-bought cookies has increased 23% in the last two years.
Chief revenue officer for USA Girl Scouts, Wendy Lou, commented about the new pricing: “Just like many other products that you see out in the world, our Girl Scout cookies are not immune to a lot of the same rising costs.” If the Girl Scouts want to make a profit, they have no choice but to ask their customers to pay an extra dollar for a box of cookies.
Thankfully for the Girl Scouts, people love these cookies. This is not the first time the cost of Girl Scout cookies has increased; it certainly will not be the last. Girl Scout cookies initially used to be sold for 25 cents a box a century ago, and in 2014 and 2015, the price went from $4 to $5. There is a high demand for these cookies because people love them so much. So, despite the increased cost of the cookies, hopefully, the nation’s appetite for Girl Scout cookies will continue to exist.
