ABC is one of two licensed Girl Scout Cookie bakers that serve councils across the country. Each council may choose its baker independently each year.

Bakers can offer up to eight varieties of cookies, three of which must be of a certain type and weight: a mint cookie in a 9 oz. package (Thin Mints), a peanut butter sandwich cookie in a 9 oz. package (Peanut Butter Sandwich), and a shortbread cookie in a 9 oz. package (Shortbread). The public has come to love and expect Caramel deLites and Peanut Butter Patties as part of the Girl Scout Cookie Sale. All five of these Girl Scout Cookie items are among the most popular cookies in the United States, even though they are available on a very limited basis.

In addition to cookies, ABC provides its Girl Scout council partners with marketing, training and girl activity materials that are designed to support girls and volunteers and to make the cookie sale activity a fun and developmental learning experience.

Less than 1/3 of the price consumers pay for a box of cookies goes to the baker, which means that most of the money raised goes to support Girl Scouting locally.

All of the net proceeds from a local council's cookie activities remain in the area where the cookies are sold. This revenue is used to benefit girls, some of it directly by remaining in the Girl Scout troop/group treasury and some of it indirectly by subsidizing the cost of providing the Girl Scout program in the local area.

Each local council sets the price per box, based on its needs and its knowledge of its local market. The price per box, therefore, may vary from one location to another and from one year to the next. Today's prices reflect both the current cost of purchasing cookies from a licensed baker and the realities of providing Girl Scout activities in an ever-changing economic environment.