HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. — The COVID-19 pandemic came at a bad time for Girl Guides of Canada.
The organization had just sent its cookies out across the country in the weeks before public health fears grounded the campaign to a halt. Luckily, some businesses have stepped up to help, such as the Terrington Co-op in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
The co-op bought 269 cases of cookies from local guides, which board president George Andrews said solved two problems.
“We’d heard that Guides had all these cookies and were, obviously, having some trouble selling them because of the door-to-door selling being suspended,” he said. “We had been running out of boxes for our delivery service and had looked into getting some from them. There was some back and forth and then it came up, ‘why don’t we just buy them and sell them in the store?’ Gives us boxes and helps out a group that provides a great benefit to the community.”
He said they were happy to help keep the local programs going and customers are really liking being able to purchase the iconic cookies in the store. They also gave away boxes to first responders in the area, which Andrews said would help show appreciation for what they do.
“It’s a bad time for a lot of people so if you can pass along a bit of cheer to someone to take them away for a few minutes from what’s going one, why not?” he said.
Other retailers across the country have also stepped up to help Guides by either buying the cookies or selling them in their stores, which Jill Zelmanovits, CEO of Girl Guides of Canada, said has been very helpful.
She said it started with a Canadian Tire retailer in Alberta who reached out to them and they started selling the cookies from his store. From there it spread to other franchises and Canadian Tire itself came on board, selling the cookies for them free of charge. Since then, London Drugs has started selling the cookies on their website and, in some place, individual retailers like the Co-op have stepped up.
“It has made me proud to be Canadian, that Canadian retailers are stepping up to support a Canadian non-profit. They understand the history and how long Girl Guiding has been delivering locally and it's often the local people who are making these connections, which are just amazing.”
Sales down across country
While retailers helping has lessened the impact slightly, Zelmanovits said, Guides are really feeling the impact of the current pandemic on the campaign, their main source of revenue. She said cookies sales account of 67 per cent of their revenue and assistance from retailers covers about 10 per cent of annual cookie sales.
“Most of that revenue stays at the local level with the girls, it's how they fund what they do. To not have that money has a big impact on how Guiders can deliver programs. It’s not just selling cookies to sell cookies.”
There are about 3.7 million boxes of cookies across the country right now, she said, which were sent out only weeks before pandemic measures were being announced. Many are trying to sell them online and in other ways, but the loss of the face-to-face contact really hurts them, Zelmanovits said.
“It’s a very social thing, they sell them to their teachers, they go to the library, they go to their neighbours. When something like this happens and there is social distancing, all those things are cut off.”
They are asking Canadians to buy the cookies whenever they see them and asking retailers who would like to get involved to reach out to them.
