The new Girl Scout cookie flavor is so popular that retailers are selling the treats online at a premium.
Raspberry Rally Cookies are a crunchy chocolate covered, raspberry flavored cookie that Girl Scouts call the “sister” cookie to the popular Thin Mints variety.
Although it is sold online by Girl Scouts, customers who have secured the boxes are offering them for up to five times their regular price on sites like eBay. For example, a Boy Scout troop in New York City sells them for $5, and boxes of the cookies sell for between $20 and $30 on eBay.
Screenshot/eBay listing
According to the Scouting organization, the sale of unauthorized cookies on the secondary market has undermined the troop’s fundraising efforts.
“Girl Scouts USA is disappointed to see the unauthorized resale of Girl Scout cookies online through third-party e-commerce platforms,” a Girl Scouts spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.
“We’re happy that demand for our cookies has been strong year after year, but we’re saddened that platforms and vendors ignore the core mission of the cookie program and try to profit from the name. Without supporting our mission and the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world,” the group added.
Purchasing cookies through an unauthorized third-party vendor deprives troops of “valuable experience and, more importantly, funding for critical year-round programs,” the spokeswoman added.
An eBay spokesperson said that while the company encourages “cookie seekers to support local Girl Scouts,” selling Girl Scout cookies on its platform does not violate eBay policy.
The Girl Scouts offered Raspberry Rally cookies last season, a product that can only be purchased online, not at individual troop cabins. It’s designed to improve “girls’ e-commerce sales and entrepreneurial skills,” Scouts said last year when announcing the new flavor.
The new cookies have been sold online, while the other flavors remain in stock.
Girl Scouts encourages customers looking for their cookies to support the girls by purchasing other cookie flavors, such as Adventurers, or by donating.
Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts have hosted an annual cookie sale for over a century. At first, actual Boy Scouts baked and sold cookies for 25 to 30 cents per dozen to fund troops. The organization says selling cookies helps members learn skills such as goal-setting, decision-making, money management, business ethics and marketing.
All of the net income raised through the annual cookie sale stays with the local council and the troop. One troop used the proceeds from the sale to rebuild homes destroyed by the Almeda Fire in the Rogue Valley near Medford, Oregon, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Cookie proceeds also funded a trip to Paris for troop members.
