Some Girl Scouts Join 20th Century, Begin Taking Credit Cards For Cookies

For decades, if you wanted to chow down on Thin Mints or any other Girl Scout cookies, you needed to have cash on hand or find someone willing to take a check. But now, a handful of troops in Ohio and California are shaking things up at the 100-year-old organization by accepting credit cards.

“Normally, I think a lot of customers would love to buy cookies, but they have to walk by the booth because they’re not carrying cash,” the director of business services for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio, where around 200 troops are testing out smartphone-based credit card readers, tells the Associated Press. “I know I never carry cash when I’m out shopping.”

She says she knows of one troop that saw a 20% increase over last year since it began accepting credit cards and that there is “a lot of interest across the country with other Girl Scout councils.” She adds that she “wouldn’t be surprised if you see it everywhere this time next year.”

In addition to the Ohio troops, there are 10 troops in the San Diego area who have begun accepting credit cards.

While the Girl Scouts don’t sell cookies online, GirlScoutCookies.org can point you to a troop near you that’s selling them. But until all the troops begin taking plastic, remember to hit up the ATM before you go on a cookie-buying binge.

Would you buy more Girl Scout cookies if you could pay by credit card?

Girl Scouts are changing the way they do business, accepting credit cards for cookies [NY Daily News]

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