Supply Chain Issues Are Messing With Our Beloved Girl Scout Cookies

As Girl Scout Cookie season approaches, it's a bummer to learn that even the Girl Scouts of the USA aren't immune to supply chain issues. The Washington Post reports that the newest cookie, Adventurefuls (which we liked), have been in short supply in and around the Washington DC area. Scout leaders and volunteers received a message on Friday with a brief announcement from the product program team serving the region.

"As you know our nation is experiencing supply chain issues related to the pandemic," read the message in part. The states affected include West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC. Orders already placed directly through individual Girl Scouts will be fulfilled, but there won't be enough Adventurefuls for Girl Scouts to sell them outside of grocery stores, which is where I usually do my impulse cookie shopping.

A previous message this month from the national organization said, "Due to extremely high demand and unprecedented covid related labor shortages in the facility where Adventurefuls are produced, our Adventureful cookie order will be capped at 7% of our total cookie sales." But later, the organization said it had solved the issue by getting more cookies from the two other producers that manufacture the sweet boxes of joy.

That didn't solve the Washington issue, however. The executive director of the Washington-area chapter, Lidia Soto-Harmon, said that getting additional cookies to Girl Scouts was going to be too difficult no matter what, considering that volunteers are already in short supply. There's just not enough time or resources to get them in time for outdoor booth season, which lasts from February 4 to March 13. "And we just don't have the bandwidth to come back to pick up one cookie," she said.

With the current wave of Omicron still hitting the nation hard, I don't see supply chain issues easing up anytime soon. When my Adventurefuls get here, I'll be sure to be extra grateful this year.