Cookie shortage: Supply chain issues leave San Diego Girl Scouts scrambling

The supply chain is thinner than a Thin Mint this season. It’s stickier than the caramel drizzled on Samoas. And it’s changing faster than you can say Tagalong.

Girl Scouts in San Diego and Imperial Counties are dealing with a cookie shortage this year that’s left troop leaders frazzled and parents stressed as their kids get a crash course in running a business during a pandemic.

Adventurefuls, the newest brownie-inspired creation, are hard to come by. S’mores, the crunchy graham sandwich cookies with chocolate and marshmallow filling, are also nearly impossible to find.

The cookie supply is so tangled that Girl Scouts San Diego is extending the cookie-selling season, which kicked off last month, from March 13 to March 27.

“This is probably the toughest season I have gone through as troop cookie manager, and this is my fourth year,” said Ioana Patringenaru, who helps her 12-year-old daughter Clara and others in their troop juggle this year’s dwindling supply of baked treats.

On top of her full-time job, the University City mom has been scrambling to coordinate which flavors they have and don’t have for the 14 members of her troop.

“Of course you get frustrated,” Patringenaru said. “In the end, you know, it’s just cookies ... it’s not the end of the world.”

The tight supply of cookies stems from supply chain problems, namely inventory issues at Little Brownie Baker, one of two bakeries that supply Girl Scout cookies across the nation, said Carol Dedrich, CEO of Girl Scouts San Diego.

The local “cookie cupboards” where troops can replenish their cookie supply will not be restocked until March, Dedrich said. One cookie that won’t be restocked due to a cap in production at the bakery are S’mores.

The decision to extend the season is aimed at giving the girls the best opportunity to meet their goals during the Girl Scouts’ biggest fundraiser of the year, she said. Proceeds go toward year-round programs for the Girl Scouts and also to charitable causes chosen by each troop.

While the situation continues to evolve, she explained that the selection of flavors depends on the neighborhood Girl Scout you buy from. For the almost 15,000 Girl Scouts across San Diego and Imperial counties, that means making the most of what you have on hand and especially being aware that Thin Mints and Samoas are always the top-selling cookies.

Last Friday, was the start of booth sales where Girl Scouts unfolded their tables outside of grocery stores to hawk their cookies to passing shoppers. But some troops might not even staff booths because they don’t have enough cookies to sell right now.

It didn’t come to that for Troop 4486, but Patringenaru was concerned about the scant number of peanut butter cookies she had on hand. Going into the weekend, she only had 11 boxes of Tagalongs and five boxes of Do-si-dos to carry her daughter’s whole troop through the first day of booth sales.

Her troop wasn’t supposed to get a shipment of those flavors until 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, which was after their first day of booth sales. She ended up snagging a few boxes from another mom who had a few extra stashed at home.

Ioana Patringenaru, the cookie manager for Troop 4486, had only a few boxes of Tagalongs and Do-si-dos Girl Scout cookies left on Feb. 10, just a few days before they would sell at a booth.

(Courtesy of Ioana Patringenaru)

“We’re all volunteers so this isn’t a corporation or anything so we’re not expecting anybody to be a master of supply chain or inventory,” she said.

In-person booths aren’t the only way to sell, as each Girl Scout is equipped with a personal website that they create to market their cookies digitally. Sixteen-year-old Leena Iwamoto is focusing her strategy on digital sales, which proved effective last year when COVID-19 forced her troop to adjust.

When she heard about possible cookie shortages this season, she said the news was “a little jarring.”

The online platform also helps her adapt to the changing supply of cookies this year. Recently, the supply of S’mores cookies dried up so her troop leader texted them to turn off that flavor setting so no one could buy it on the Scouts’ personal cookie websites.

“I had never experienced anything like this. I mean, I’ve been reading a bit about supply shortages throughout the entire economy, but for it to hit like close to home was pretty new,” she said.

Antionette Davis, who leads her 11-year-old daughter Nyliah’s troop in Spring Valley, said that she’s not letting the supply chain stop her girls from reaching their goals. Instead, the former Girl Scout is encouraging them to see this as an opportunity.

A Girl Scout donation box for troops outside Boney’s Bayside Market at Coronado on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.

(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Last year, her daughter sold the most cookies she’s ever sold during COVID-19, about 525 boxes, and collectively Troop 5808 sold around 3,000 boxes of cookies. Her girls have gotten creative when it comes to marketing, from creating fliers with a personal QR code to buy cookies to her top-selling Scout holding signs with her own slogan to attract customers.

This year, her troop is hoping to sell about 4,000 boxes and part of that money will go toward their project to create care packages for animals at their local shelter.

Right now, Davis said her troop is stocked, and they are prepared to deal with any supply issues that may arise by upselling other relatively new flavors like Lemon-Ups, which debuted in 2020, in place of the newest and elusive Adventurefuls.

“It’s a great way to highlight that there are things that aren’t going to go as to plan, and what ways can we strategize to still meet our goals? And, you know, turn lemons into lemonade, so to speak ... or turn them into Lemon-Ups.”

They’ve also let people know that they can buy cookies that will be donated to American troops through Operation Thin Mint.

Since 2002, this program that originated in San Diego has sent 3.7 million packages of cookies to support deployed U.S. troops serving around the world. Dedrich said that she was assured by Little Brownie Baker that any donation orders will be filled and that the supply will be available when they are shipped later this spring.