‘So much more than cookies’: Girl Scout cookie prices increase in Spokane for the first time in a decade

Inflation finally has caught up with the Girl Scouts in Spokane.

For the first time in a decade, Girl Scout Cookies will cost more.

The Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho Girl Scout Chapter CEO Brian Newberry has intentionally kept each box of cookies at $5 since 2016, while other chapters like Western Washington began selling cookies for $6 a box two years ago. Now, cookies sold in the Spokane region will go for $6 a box.

“I held out on the price increase, hoped for the best, but I went to $6 this year to try and account for costs,” Newberry said. “My cookie prices have gone up in the background and I didn’t raise prices for the last couple years, and we’ve sustained losses in our program because of all the costs of employees, insurance, etc.”

While this price increase may make it more difficult for the girls to sell cookies at booths, where folks used to be able to hand over a $10 bill and get two boxes, 11-year-old Jacqueline Razack and 10-year-old Clair Story wasted no time selling cookies on Friday after school, which marked the start of booth season. Jacqueline and Clair are in different troops, but have been friends for several years.

Jacqueline and her mom, Julia Marstall, were both stationed in front of the South Hill Rosauers on 14th Avenue after school , pitching Thin Mints and Tagalongs to patrons .

Selling cookies at booths in the spring is a tradition that Marstall looks forward to each year. It teaches her daughter resilience, she said.

“It’s so much more than cookies,” Marstall said. “Girl Scouts are everywhere. Either someone has been a Girl Scout or they’ve known a Girl Scout, and it’s always a positive experience.”

They’ve been selling boxes of cookies since February, when online orders opened up, Jacqueline said, but booths typically turn more sales.

“I build up my confidence whenever I do booths,” she said, grinning. “Whenever I sell cookies, it’s a really great opportunity for me to practice my social skills and learn so many new things about people.”

According to Newberry, the money from the cookies they sell will stay in Spokane.

“When people buy cookies, everything stays local,” Newberry said. “You are helping the girl right there, and none of it goes to our headquarters in New York. It just really makes a difference in the world, whether you like the Thin Mint or Samoas, our top two cookies, or whether just like helping girls, it just makes a difference.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho has had record breaking sales and membership numbers. But now, numbers are dropping.

In 2020, the chapter had 3,410 members. In 2024, it hit 4,307 members. Cookie sales also peaked in 2024, with the girls selling 1.2 million boxes. In 2025, the chapter sold 1.18 million boxes, Newberry said. There is concern that the price increase could impact cookie sales this year, but only time will tell, he said.

“You don’t realize how good things are until you look at it in the rearview mirror,” Newberry said.

Now, the chapter has 3,655 members. While those membership numbers may seem low, this dropoff is typical for the chapter, Newberry said, because girls can join the organization until September.

That said, Newberry’s chapter is in the top eight in membership in the entire organization, which has 110 chapters.

Members in the Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho chapter sell an average of 432 boxes of cookies every year, Newberry said, while the average Girl Scout in America sells about 200 boxes.

“So our girls, on average, just crush it at selling boxes of cookies,” Newberry said. “… We’re one of the strongest chapters in America.”

The hope is that this year Girl Scouts in the Inland Northwest will continue selling cookies and sell at least a million boxes. A new cookie, called the Exploremore, is being introduced, Newberry said. It’s a sandwich cookie that was inspired by rocky road ice cream, with chocolate, marshmallow and toasted almond-flavored crème.

“We’re out here trying to make the world a better place, and cookies are our oxygen and fuel to help us do that,” Newberry said. “We produce careers, confidence and character. That’s our mission.”

Both girls, Jacqueline and Clair, have been on adventures together and with their troops – going rock climbing, learning about story building from published authors, exploring local farms and riding bikes.

“I love doing Girl Scouts, because I get to make new friends, and I get to go on lots of fun experiences,” Clair said. “It’s building me more as a person, because I need to work on my business skills, and I also meet lots of new people.”

They agree that Girl Scout activities and friendships help them unplug from devices, and they have the patches to prove it.

Both of the girls’ vests are covered with patches and badges, each representing a different experience, challenge or activity they did through Girl Scouts. Clair has two sandwich bags packed with patches she couldn’t fit on her vest.

“There’s a sisterhood with scouting,” said Jessie Story, Clair’s mom. “Saying, ‘I’m a Scout,’ connects you to women on a global level.”

There are Girl Scouts in 54 different countries, she said.

“Girl Scouts is so instrumental in forming core memories for people: core experiences, core growth moments, fun times,” Story said. “So many adult women that approach our cookie booth will tell us when they went to summer camps, or they’ve even gone to the same summer camps, and they love hearing what is camp like today, because it’s such a happy moment in their memory. They’re excited that that tradition carries on.”