Last August, the Girl Scouts of the USA announced they would be launching a new cookie, a sort of “sister cookie” to the Thin Mint. The chocolate-coated Raspberry Rally cookies were only available to buy online — not from whichever troops ring doorbells in your neighborhood — because the organization wanted to help its young scouts build their e-commerce and entrepreneurial skills.
As Food & Wine reports, saying that the Raspberry Rally was an immediate hit still sounds like an understatement. Trying to get a box of the berry-infused cookies was a little bit like trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets: you had to be fast and extremely online to even have a chance, and the rest of us had to pay super-inflated prices to resellers. There were so many eBay auctions for the cookies — some of them hitting three digits for a single box — that the Scouts released a statement to express their disappointment, scolding sellers for “[making] a profit off of the name without supporting our mission and the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world.”
Despite the cookie’s popularity, the Girl Scouts of the USA have announced that Raspberry Rally will not be sold during the upcoming Girl Scout cookie season: not online, not in person, not at all. “Last year, Raspberry Rally cookies were introduced as part of a pilot online-only sales strategy,” a Girl Scouts spokesperson told NBC’s Today show. “While Raspberry Rally was extremely popular last year, we are taking a pause this season to prioritize supplying our classic varieties.”
Although that news may be disappointing to anyone who snagged a box or fell for that new flavor last year, it may also be a relief to some young Girl Scouts.
In March, the Los Angeles Times talked to some Scouts and their parents who were frustrated with the cookie’s online-only availability since some younger troop members didn’t have cell phones or tablets that allowed them to take digital orders. On top of that, it could be less exciting to tell potential customers to click a link instead of handing them a box of cookies in person.
The next Girl Scout Cookie Season will start in January and run through April. Other than Raspberry Rally, you should still be able to order other longtime favorites like Thin Mints, Trefoils, and Tagalongs — but you might have to pay a little more. Earlier this week, the Girl Scouts of the USA confirmed that the price of each box would be increasing by around $1 per box (although the per-box price could jump by even more, depending on which part of the country you live in.)
Still, a small price to pay to, you know, help girls and young women build their entrepreneurial skills …and to help you build your own personal Thin Mint stockpile.
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