The Girl Scout cookie craze, which now sells over 200 million boxes annually, began with a single experiment at Philadelphia’s Broad and Arch streets in 1932, writes Christie Ileto for 6abc.
The initial Girl Scout cookies were baked in the ovens of Philadelphia Gas and Electric, today’s PECO, as part of a bake-sale fundraiser conceived by parents employed at the company who also served as Girl Scout volunteers.
“And so they asked the company, would you mind if we try to bake, you know, in bulk, some cookies to help these girls with their fundraisers?” said Kim E. Fraites-Dow, CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.
The answer was yes, and they soon had plenty of customers drawn in by the aroma drifting down the street.
The fundraiser was repeated the following year, and by 1934, the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia introduced the first commercial cookie sale in partnership with Keebler, producing Refoils. Over 110,000 boxes were sold, helping to cover expenses for Camp Indian Run. The success quickly spread nationwide, and today, cookies are shipped by helicopter or truck.
The tradition continues to honor the “entrepreneurship and vision and revolutionary spirit of people in the city,” said Fraites-Dow.
Read more about how the Girl Scouts cookie empire got its start in Philadelphia at 6abc.
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