Girl Scout Cookies Have Been Hard To Get This Year, But Why?

We're in the thick of the most wonderful time of the year: Girl Scout cookie season. Just like every year prior, Girl Scouts are selling cookies both online and at booths around town. But unlike before, it's been especially hard to track down popular Girl Scout cookie flavors in 2023.

Instead of stocking up on Thin Mints, Samoas, and the newest Girl Scout cookie flavor, Raspberry Rally, desperate would-be customers are scratching their heads. Although last year brought some slight supply issues, there really hasn't been another year in the history of Girl Scout cookie sales when cookies have been so hard to find. The cookie shortage has even left some people reselling Girl Scout cookies online for tremendous markup prices. What's happening to all of those missing cookies this year, and will this trend continue for years to come? We certainly hope not, but it turns out that there is a reason behind those scarce cookies.

You used to need to buy directly from a Girl Scout to purchase cookies, but with online cookie sales beginning in 2014, scoring those Thin Mints became much easier. This year seems to be an exception to the rule, though, with seemingly few boxes of Girl Scout cookies available for purchase.

The Girl Scouts have contracts with two bakeries, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Cookies, each of which supply cookies to troops in different regions. In November 2022, a couple of months before the 2023 Girl Scout cookie season began, Girl Scout leaders were notified that Little Brownie Bakers was experiencing "supply chain issues" that could affect 2023 cookie sales. Troops typically order the amount of cookies they expect their troops to sell before cookie season begins and put in more orders to their contracted bakeries if they sell out, but this year, Little Brownie Bakers was only able to guarantee troops their initial orders (and allegedly, sometimes not even the original orders were filled). A Girl Scouts spokesperson also shared that a power outage at a Little Brownie Bakers location exacerbated the supply chain issue and slowed cookie production even further. The reason you can't find Girl Scout cookies this year? It's the classic "too much demand, too little supply."

Does the likelihood of finding your favorite Girl Scout cookie flavor depend on which flavor you want? Unfortunately, the answer is "yes."

While Little Brownie Bakers supplies a variety of troops with Girl Scout cookies, your ability to find your favorite type will depend on the troop from which you buy. Some troops have nearly every cookie option available, while others only have a few cookie flavors for sale this year because of the limited supply and sky-high demand. The hardest cookies to buy? The Girl Scouts' newest offering, Raspberry Rally. Although new flavors typically generate enough intrigue to translate into top sales numbers, the Girl Scouts organization had no clue how popular the new Raspberry Rally cookies would be. The cookies, which launched online on January 27, sold out in under a day, and ever since, some customers have re-sold boxes of Raspberry Rally cookies for up to $40 per box. With Girl Scout cookies so scarce this season, it may be tempting to buy boxes off of eBay, but it's important to remember that only cookies sold directly through the Girl Scouts organization benefit the troops. Supply chain issues have left would-be customers hungry for Girl Scout cookies they can't find, but hopefully, this won't be the case in the years to come.