Sugar-Coated Business Lessons? Not This Year

Thirteen-year-old Dominique Harris of Gardena has business problems that would vex the most seasoned executive.

The head office has told her to raise prices 33%, and labor unrest has disrupted her best sales territory.

What’s a Girl Scout to do?

As the venerable organization’s annual cookie drive kicks off this week, “we are just going to have to work harder,” said Harris, an eighth-grader at Maria Regina Catholic School.

Harris and the other 110,000 scouts in the region have been told by their leaders to make contingency plans in case Southern California’s intractable strike and lockout continue into March. That’s the month when troops traditionally plant their flags in front of grocery stores to peddle Thin Mints, Samoas and other specialty confections.

On top of that, the cookies this year will be priced at $4 a box -- up from $3 -- in the first increase in at least seven years.

Harris’ troop is worried about how it will match the 1,500 boxes its members sold last year, most of them to customers of the Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons stores that are now off-limits. The pressure is really on because the troop wants to raise money for a trip to Orlando, Fla.

To make up for lost supermarket ground, local Girl Scouts have been given the OK to find new territory -- everywhere from churches to farmers markets to office supply stores and post offices.

“We are not taking sides,” said Yvonne Elm, spokeswoman for the Angeles Girl Scout Council, which governs 810 troops in Santa Monica and the South Bay. Because customer traffic has fallen dramatically, she said, the supermarkets involved in the labor dispute just don’t make the best business sense.

For her part, Harris -- a top producer who sold 500 boxes last year -- said she would probably set up shop in front of a local Blockbuster. She appreciates that she’ll have to come up with a new sales pitch to capture the attention of patrons thinking about renting movies rather than buying food.

Although Harris sells sweets one box at a time, there’s no doubt the Girl Scouts’ operation is big business.

In Southern California alone, Girl Scouts sold 12 million boxes in 2003, raking in $36 million. About 20% of the transactions took place in front of grocery stores and other retail outlets.

The region’s Girl Scout councils are seeking the public’s help in finding alternative high-traffic sites that might be good for selling cookies. One of the new venues this year will be at offices buildings, officials said.

“The grocery strike is just one real-life event the girls can learn from,” said Joannie Ransom, executive director of the Angeles council.

In the San Fernando Valley, Girl Scouts there also are getting lessons on how to put a positive spin on cookie price hike.

In a two-page memorandum, the Valley council reminds that all cookie proceeds are used to offset the costs of running a program that helps girls and young women build character and other life skills.

The memorandum also takes pains to note that anybody who spends $4 for a box of 18 cookies probably understands that “they are doing more than buying a product.”