Entrepreneurial Girl Scout has leaders grappling with a new frontier of cookie sales: outside the pot shop

The identity of the entrepreneurial Girl Scout who said she sold 312 boxes of Girl Scout cookies outside a San Diego marijuana shop this weekend remains a mystery to the organization, and that has left it unsure of its next steps as the story continues to garner national headlines like this one from Jezebel:

A spokeswoman for Girl Scouts San Diego told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday that the regional council of the national organization is not investigating the matter, but would discuss it with the girl and her family if they ever find out who she is because there are very particular rules about when and where Girl Scouts can sell their popular cookies each year — and “consequences” for repeated infractions.

Girl Scouts San Diego said it does not really know how to address the viral story of this Girl Scout selling cookies outside of a marijuana dispensary.

“It’s not a cut-and-dried situation when we don’t know who the girl is and we don’t know what the situation is,” said Maryl Doyle, director of communications for Girl Scouts San Diego.

It remains unclear whether this Girl Scout and her father broke any of the organization’s rules when they sold so many cookies in front of Urbn Leaf over the weekend in the Bay Park neighborhood of San Diego, with the help of some social-media promotion from the marijuana dispensary.

Doyle told the Union-Tribune on Monday that Girl Scouts are prohibited from setting up booths outside commercial establishments without explicit permission from business owners on an approved list. Doyle said that Urbn Leaf “is not on the approved booth site list.”

To get around this issue, Girl Scouts are allowed to sell cookies in “walk-abouts” using a rolling cart, but only in residential areas.

“The walk-about or door-to-door sales rules are in place to protect Girl Scouts and their families from receiving citations for solicitation of cookies,” Doyle told the Union-Tribune.

The story attracted national attention this week after Urbn Leaf on Saturday posted a photo on Instagram of the Girl Scout in front of the shop with a caption that read: “Get Some Girl Scout Cookies with your GSC today until 4pm!”

“Approximately 14,000 girls participate in the Girl Scout cookie program,” Doyle said. “As Girl Scouts, we assume good intent. Should we become aware that a girl has repeated an infraction, there could be consequences, determined on a case-by-case basis. We handle situations like this as we would a personnel issue … as a private matter between the family” and Girl Scouts San Diego.

Gomez writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune