Hello Troop Cookie Managers & Leaders,
Wow, wow, wow!
Girls are selling cookies everywhere we look; we’re so excited to see the girls so engaged. First and foremost the Cookie Program is a way for girls to learn how to run a business and like businesses everywhere, supplies can be impacted by weather and demand—Girl Scout Cookies are no different!
Each week, we take your planned orders and add more to place a big order to our baker. At that point, ABC has to pull inventory and schedule a truck & driver to head our way. This takes a lot of planning on all fronts! Well, GSKSMO Girl Scouts are rocking it in cookie sales this year as is a lot of Girl Scouts across the country. Such great news!
Because we are all trending ahead of forecast, ABC Bakers has turned the ovens back on to bake more cookies. Based on the stock we have pulled everywhere and trucks arriving this week, we will be short on Adventurefuls, Lemonades and Peanut Butter Sandwiches for the weekend.
All cupboards will be impacted. It is so important to note that this is a delay in product. They will come and those cookies will be freshest of the fresh! We have already scheduled our trucks for next week and will keep you posted as we begin to receive our needed stock.
Take a few moments to breathe.... It's going to be OK
Here's how you can plan for weekend booth sales
Stay as flexible as possible and follow the direction of your Product Program Manager & Cupboard Manager. We have deliveries going to nearly every cupboard across our council and those deliveries are scheduled for Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Due to the forecasted storm and to ensure our Fry Wagner drivers stay safe, we may need to adjust delivery and/or council cupboard hours. Your PPM will communicate that as she / he hears from us.
Your Planned Order shortage of Adventurefuls, PB Sandwiches and Lemonades will not be known until your pick-up. Your planned order will be adjusted to reflect what you pick-up.
If you still need the product you didn't receive, place another Planned Order on Sunday by 9:00 pm with what you might need from the shortage and anything new for the upcoming week. We won't carry over any product we short you because of the steps below.
If you are picking up product for customer girl delivered orders and have a booth sale this weekend, redirect that product. to your booth sale inventory. Customers will get their orders as our promise is always by the end of the season. Cookies are coming and who doesn't want the freshest of the fresh cookies? Just remember that if you didn't cookies from other troops, be sure to place that Planned Order to take care of these customer orders.
Girl Scouts are resourceful and team players - Work together to help troops that may have extra cases or can wait another week to get more. Let the transfers begin! Your service unit pages are a great place to help each other but you can go beyond your service unit as well.
The top 3 flavors (Thin Mints, Caramel DeLites & PB Patties) are in full stock and thus booth sales can always happen as long as you have these varieties and you do!
Direct Ship is also being impacted with PB Sandwiches in the oven. If a customer orders a variety in the oven + other varieties, the order will be held until all product is there to ship. If you hear from a customer, this is what is occurring. That order will come and those cookies will be the freshest of the fresh! As always, we will monitor and work with ABC and our customers can count on receiving their cookies.
Booth Etiquette 101
An important note about trading from one troop to the next. The transition should begin 5-10 minutes before the end of the shift. The troop on-site receives all sales to the top of the hour and then the arriving troop takes over. The two lead adults should check in with one another and help each other. We want to see a great, kind and flexible hand off from troop to troop.
So our Girl Scouts are doing all the right things... what happens if a business owner doesn't act the same way? First, booth locations are so generous to allow our Girl Scouts to sell. We must follow all guidelines and leave the area better than we found it. 99% of the time, all is great!
On those rare occurrences and a troop is asked to leave, please do so. Please notify us ASAP at cookies@gsksmo.org or by calling our emergency line at 816-358-8750, hit #6.
At this point, we will work with the location to try to get back on track or work with you to find another location, etc. Booth sales are so much fun, a great way for our Girl Scouts to reach for those goals and our customers to find us!
Just be prepared by reviewing the booth overview and don't hesitate to reach out ASAP if you experience anything we can help with. We are there for you!
Cookie Coach
Our next Cookie Coach session is scheduled for February 21. It’s open forum Q & A so bring the questions. We’ll stay live between 6pm – 7pm. If we still have participants online, we’ll stay longer. Join us! We always put our recordings up a few days following the session... our financial session link will be live early this upcoming week.
Thank you for all you are doing! WE'VE GOT THIS!!
The Product Program Team
