Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include information from the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles.
They’re here for just a blip: a delicious springtime tradition when Girl Scout cookies—Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and Samoas (Caramel Delights)—are for sale anywhere and everywhere. Then, all of a sudden, they’re gone.
According to the Girl Scouts of the USA, 200 million boxes are sold in any given year. Because they’re so popular, you might think they sell out. But that’s not the case.
So, what happens to Girl Scout cookies that go unsold? We wanted to find out.
A quick Google search turns up horror stories of people throwing out boxes of perfectly good cookies.
In 2013, the Girl Scouts came under fire after a video surfaced showing cookies being trashed, with a worker joyfully saying, “Goodbye, Girl Scout cookies.”
In the decade since, the program has implemented new systems to ensure that unsold cookies find a home, although specifics can sometimes be hard to come by.
We reached out to some of the biggest Girl Scouts chapters in the nation to find out how many boxes went unsold and what’s being done with them. While many are donated to food pantries, what’s happening to the rest isn’t always clear.
The national Girl Scouts office tells KTLA 5 News that councils are encouraged to donate excess inventory to a charity of their choice with a signed agreement specifically stating that cookies cannot be re-sold.
However, the organization also admits it doesn’t track the number of cookies donated, saying each council has the ability to select a charity or donation center independently.
Take, for instance, the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida:
They tell us they sold 1.4 million boxes of cookies. But despite that, almost 10,000 cases remain unsold in a warehouse. Just that one chapter.
We’re told supporters of the GSSEF chapter can join their community cookie drive and can now purchase cases of cookies to donate to one of four local organizations: House of Hope, The Lord’s Place, Palm Beach County Food Bank, and Treasure Coast Food Bank.
KTLA wanted to know what happens to boxes of cookies that haven’t been sold or found a home with a local charity. GSSEF says it donates extras to the military as part of a program that’s been up and running since 2009.
The Girl Scouts of Central Texas tell us this:
They donated 74,424 cookie packages to Soldier’s Angels. We wanted clarification if that was ALL the unsold boxes of cookies. That included what customers paid to donate—but also leftover inventory.
The Girl Scouts of Northern California:
In 2024, the Girl Scouts of Northern California’s Care to Share program donated over 170,000 boxes of cookies across a 19-county region to support local military personnel, food banks, and community heroes. This year’s contribution marked a 14% increase in cookie donations compared to the previous year. We asked if 170,000 boxes were ALL the unsold boxes but didn’t get an answer.
What about the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles?
A spokesperson said their Cookies for the Community program yielded 185,000 packages that were purchased by Girl Scouts’ customers to be donated to military troops overseas and nonprofit partners, The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Bob Hope USO, Blue Star Mothers, and Operation Gratitude. Any “leftovers” were donated to those organizations and other Southern California non-profits.
New York, Chicago, and other regions didn’t answer KTLA’s request for comment.