Raspberry Rally Girl Scout cookies sold out in a day last year. This year, the flavor didn't make the cut
The Raspberry Rally Girl Scout cookies sold out on Long Island in a day last year. This year, they're not sold. Credit: Girl Scouts of the USA
That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Girl Scout Cookie selling season has begun in earnest on Long Island, and buyers may notice that the Raspberry Rally — the treat that sold out nationwide after making its debut last year and was hawked on eBay for up to $110 a box — is nowhere on the Scouts’ order forms or online platform.
The Raspberry Rally cookies were billed as the “sister cookie” to the Scouts’ iconic Thin Mints; the new cookie was the same size and shape and also covered in chocolate, but its interior was raspberry flavored instead of mint. And while fans of the flavor may lament its demise, Rande Bynum, CEO of Girl Scouts of Nassau County, says the one-year-wonder did its job — and she hinted that it may be back in future years.
“It got a lot of buzz, and it got people to participate in our overall cookie program,” Bynum says. The frenzy over the hard-to-get cookie was so widespread that Jimmy Fallon even joked on the “Tonight Show” that, “This is a great way for Girl Scouts to earn their Black Market Badge.”
In all seriousness, “It was a good cookie. Fruit flavors are popular. I hope down the road it can be a cookie we see again, either permanently or here and there,” says Tammy Severino, president and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, where the cookie sold out last year in one day.
ALWAYS AN EXPERIMENT
The Raspberry Rally was always meant to be a pilot program, an experiment in selling cookies online spurred by the pandemic, Bynum says. “It was a deliberate business strategy to see how an online-only cookie would do. Raspberry Rally was an opportunity to try something we hadn’t done before as an organization.”
A box of about 32 cookies sold for $5, and orders were delivered directly to buyers’ doors. No cookies will be sold that way this year. The Scouts’ nine cookie choices on this year's order forms are sold and delivered by the girls in person and through booth sales in front of supermarkets. They include Adventurefuls, Lemon-Ups, Trefoils, Do-si-dos, Samoas, Tagalongs, Thin Mints, Girl Scout S'mores and Toffee-tastic.
The Girl Scouts of the USA national council even said at the time that they weren’t sure whether Raspberry Rally cookies would be back for 2024, and the decision was made in October to suspend them.
'DON’T TAKE MY THIN MINTS'
In written notice to local councils, the national council explains the decision this way: “Our cookie bakers were not confident in their ability to supply Raspberry Rally at the quantities necessary to meet forecasted demand. Considering this information and our desire for a seamless volunteer and girl experience, GSUSA will be focusing on stabilizing the foundational cookie program.” The national council added that the Raspberry Rally may be revisited in the future.
“I think there’s a possibility,” Bynum agrees. “Over the years, we’ve had so many varieties,” she says. “I wouldn’t say they are gone forever.”
The cookie program is not really about the cookie,” she adds. “It’s not really about what’s inside the box.” It’s about the girls learning entrepreneurial skills and raising money to support their activities throughout the year, she says.
At Suffolk County’s annual Cookiepalooza kickoff rally at Smith Haven Mall, which this January is expected to draw 1,500 Scouts and volunteers, the girls will visit stations to learn about sales techniques and get pumped up for meeting their sales goals. The cookie sale, which lasts until spring, is a major fundraiser to support activities and scholarships for girls throughout each year. “For most councils, this is their single biggest funding source,” Severino says.
The pivot to suspending the Raspberry Rally is also a learning experience for the girls, that in business things don’t always go predictably and they may want to choose another path, Bynum says.
All of this being said, however, don’t even think about ever taking away Bynum’s Thin Mints, she says. “I always keep them in my freezer. I say, ‘I’m only going to have three,’ and then go back and eat four more.”
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
