National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend is February 22-24, 2019! Celebrate the annual event by hosting a cookie booth! Selling at a cookie booth is a fantastic way for girls to practice their 5 skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. Take a look at our list of things to keep in mind for a smooth, successful booth sale.

Planning With Your Girls Before Your Booth Sale

• What to bring – Make a packing list with your girls about what they need at their booth. You’ll definitely need a cash box, maybe a credit card reader (plus phone/tablet and charger). Check to see if you need to bring your own table. What decorations will you be bringing? Maybe spend some time during a meeting making some signs to make your booth pop!
• What to wear – Everyone will want to wear their vest, sash or tunic. Make sure all the girls and families understand where the booth will be and what kind of weather they might be experiencing.
• Setting expectations – Whether booth sales are new for your troop, or you’ve done plenty before, it’s always a good idea to remind girls what kind of behavior is expected. Consider making a group contract at the meeting right before your booth sale. Brainstorm what is appropriate behavior at a booth sale, write it down, and have each person sign the piece of paper. If girls start leaning toward inappropriate behavior, you can remind them of their agreement.

Practice Before The Booth Sale

• Making change – Have girls practice making change with coins and bills. All girls, even our littlest ones, can count back change at the booth. It might take a little longer than if an adult stepped in, but it’s the girls’ program, so let them try, and help out when needed.
• What to say – Your girls probably practiced knocking on doors or talking on the phone before the initial sale. Now is a good time to revisit how to ask a passerby to purchase Girl Scout cookies.

At Your Booth

• What will everyone do? – You probably will have more than one girl at the booth at a time, so how will you keep everyone busy. There’s plenty of work to be done, so divide the tasks to give everyone a purpose. You might have one girl waving a sign, someone who takes the order, someone handling payments, and another refreshing the display on your table. Girls might gravitate to one role, but make sure you give them a chance to rotate and practice new skills.

Good luck with your booth sales, Girl Scouts!