Buying boxes of Girl Scout cookies is an affordable way to both support the organization, as well as a way to binge boxes of thin mints and Samosas.
However, inflation has made the treats a bit more expensive than in recent years, according to a CBS MoneyWatch report.
“Cookies sold by some troops will cost as much as $6 a box, up from $5 per package last year,” said the report. “To be sure, some newer cookies, like S’mores and Toffee-tastic, had already been priced at $6, but now the increase extends to other varieties of the coveted treats in regions including including New York and Massachusetts.”
A 2019 article in Vox said that Americans were already spending around 800 million on Girl Scout cookies annually. Organization troops sell the cookies to raise funds for activities and more.
For more than a year, inflation has been increasing prices in the U.S. In response, the Federal Reserve Bank has increased interest rates, which make it harder for people to borrow money and are intended to slow the economy. After multiple interest rate hikes, inflation rose again in August, per the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics.
CBS said that the Girl Scout cookie price increases are due to the impact of inflation on ingredients that go into them.
“Each of our 111 Girl Scout councils sets local Girl Scout Cookie prices based on several factors,” a spokesperson for Girl Scouts of the USA told CBS MoneyWatch in an email. “In some instances, councils are faced with the tough decision to raise the prices, though prices have remained steady in many areas for a number of years.”