Local Girl Scout troops’ cookie drive-thru is a learning experiment

Drive-thru Girl Scout cookie stands are nothing new. However one local troop leader wanted to see what would happen if there was one in Burbank.

This past Saturday and Sunday, seven Girl Scout troops — 7156, 10456, 11456, 3106, 1726, 6576 and 4016 — set up a table in the parking lot of Open Road Entertainment on Olive Avenue and sold boxes of cookies to those driving by and looking to get their sweet fix.

Julie Ford Smith, the leader for troop 7156, said the turnout was not as large as she thought it would be, but added that the Girl Scouts who participated had fun with the drive-thru stand.

“People that did stop by said it was the greatest thing ever,” Smith said. “We were just in a tough spot. It was near the Buena Vista [Street] and Olive [intersection], so I think people were just concentrating on driving.”

There wasn’t much publicity about the drive-thru either. Smith said organizers let people know about it through social media, but they relied heavily on those simply driving by.

The participating young women, many of whom were top-ranking Scouts, danced, played music and twirled their signs to try and get people to buy a box or two of cookies, Smith said.

Though the number of people who stopped was not as high as anticipated, Smith said the troops collectively sold a little more than 200 boxes of cookies over the weekend.

The drive-thru experiment, as Smith likes to call it, came about after years of seeing Girl Scout troops in other cities using drive-thrus to sell cookies.

“We haven’t had anything like that in Burbank before, so no one really knows about it,” Smith said. “But the girls did a good job, and it was a great learning experience.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio