Sunday marked the beginning of the year’s sweetest season: Girl Scout cookie season.
The 2013 Girl Scout Cookie Program runs from Jan. 27 through Mar. 10, according to the San Diego Girl Scouts website.
The program – which generates nearly $800 million – is touted as the “largest girl-led business in the country” by the Girl Scouts organization.
“Through the Girl Scout Cookie Program, girls develop five essential skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics,” the website says.
In San Diego, local Brownie Troop 6059 kicked off the cookie craze Sunday by setting up shop at Miguel Trail Place in Chula Vista. Girl Scouts and their leader sold cookies door-to-door.
Other troops set up stands outside grocery stores, a familiar scene during Girl Scout cookie season.
The iconic sweet treats sell for $4 per box. According to the Girl Scouts organization, best-selling cookies include Tagalongs, Do-Si-Dos, Samoas and, of course, Thin Mints.
Every cookie season, the organization runs a program called Operation Thin Mint, in which customers send boxes of Thin Mint cookies to deployed troops.
Since 2002, San Diego Girl Scout troops and local customers have sent more than two million boxes of Thin Mints to troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Japan, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific and Indian Ocean.
This year, the 2013 Operation Thin Mint Sendoff event will take place May 4 aboard the USS Midway Museum on North Harbor Drive. For more information on how to send cookies to troops click here.
For general information about the Girl Scout Cookie Program and where to buy cookies, click here.
