Girl Scout cookie boxes lighter this year

It’s cookie season again, and Girl Scouts will have a lighter burden to lug around. As the costs of baking and transporting the group’s famous sweets shoot through the roof, the Girl Scouts of the USA has decided to package fewer cookies into boxes of Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Tagalongs and to shrink the Lemon Chalet Creme cookies.

“In order to give the customer the product they’re used to, instead of raising the price, this was the only alternative: lowering the weight of the cookies rather than asking the customers to pay more,” said Michelle Tompkins, a Girl Scouts spokeswoman.

Girl Scouts traditionally sell the cookies to practice setting goals, managing money and working in teams. Each local council sets its own price, sometimes as high as $4.50 a box, though the nationwide average is $3.50.

-- Tiffany Hsu