Taking a cue from the battered restaurant industry during the pandemic, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. said this week that they would offer contactless delivery and pickup of their cookies through Grubhub.
It’s the first time that the Girl Scouts, who have sold cookies for more than a century, have collaborated with a national delivery service, the organization said.
For decades, cookie stands stacked with boxes of Samoas, Thin Mints and Trefoils have been ubiquitous outside supermarkets and in other high-traffic areas. So have direct sales pitches from parents of Girl Scouts to their colleagues at work.
But then the pandemic hit, drastically limiting direct contact. So the Girl Scouts got creative.
“We’re proud of the resourceful ways Girl Scouts are running their cookie businesses safely and using their earnings to make the world a better place,” Judith Batty, the interim chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts, said in a statement. “This season, our girls will continue to exemplify what the cookie program taught them — how to think like entrepreneurs, use innovative sales tactics and pivot to new ways of doing business when things don’t go according to plan.”
Cookie sales were already underway last year when the pandemic was declared, which the organization said had prompted many Girl Scouts to adapt their strategies. Some created virtual cookie booths on social media, while others shipped orders or set up drive-through pickup sites.
The Girl Scouts said that online ordering would begin on Feb. 1, with Grubhub making deliveries in select markets. Additional markets will be introduced over the course of cookie-selling season, which typically runs from January through April.
The Girl Scouts said that Grubhub had agreed to waive the fees that it and competitors like Uber Eats and DoorDash typically charge to restaurants. The fees have become a source of complaints within the industry.
Source : Nytimes
