Manitoba troops of go-getter girls are now accepting card payments at doorsteps and other sites during their cookie fundraisers.
Girl Guides of Canada groups began testing out debit and credit transactions with new terminals last fall.
This season, with their annual “chocolatey mint” cookie fundraiser underway, all local troops have access to a Square machine.
FILE PHOTO
Adapting to a customer base that largely doesn’t carry cash anymore, Girl Guides of Canada now accept credit and debit payments for cookies.
Allison Rempel, deputy provincial commissioner of the charity’s Manitoba council, said there have been fewer “turnaways” as a result of the new option.
“As an individual, I don’t carry cash anymore, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. We live in quite a cashless society now,” said Rempel, who oversees a troop in South St. Vital.
In the past, it was not uncommon for sellers to be met with would-be customers apologizing that they did not have any cash on them, she said.
Girl Guide leaders have been selling cookies to support the organization’s mission of empowering young participants for nearly a century.
The biannual tradition, including an autumn “chocolatey mint” cookie campaign and spring fundraiser with both vanilla and chocolate-flavoured sandwich cookies, began with a Regina volunteer who baked treats to fund new uniforms and camping equipment in 1927.
More than five million boxes of cookies – roughly 100 million cookies – are now sold annually. Each box is $6.
The proceeds subsidize camping trips and other group activities for girls aged five to 17.
A new report on Canadian purchasing trends indicates digital payments represented 86 per cent of all retail transactions in 2023.
Payments Canada data show credit cards were used the most frequently, accounting for 33 per cent of the overall volume.
Debit cards were tapped, swiped or inserted for 30 per cent of transactions.
Cash was only involved in 11 per cent of exchanges.
Those figures reflect an analysis of 21.7 billion retail payment transactions in 2023 analyzed by the owner and operator of Canada’s payment clearing and settlement system.
“While we continue to see payment innovation in a digital era, Canadians also want access to legacy payment options due to their ease of use and dependability,” Jon Purther, director of research at Payments Canada, said in a news release on Oct. 2.
The total volume of cash transactions has dropped 20 per cent over the last five years, per the new report. At the same time, it indicates almost half of Canadians frequently used cash last year.
The Girl Guides’ Manitoba council indicated between 40 to 50 per cent of local cookie transactions are happening via card payment this year.
The charity does not accept direct e-transfers for cookies, but Guides’ parents can.
Christine Porter said she signed her daughters up for the extracurricular program so they could meet new friends and learn leadership skills. Nostalgia also contributed to the decision, the former guide said.
Porter’s daughters, who are members of units in Waverley Heights, are currently competing in cookie sales.
The duo has sold 18 cases, each of which has 12 boxes inside — an activity their mother said is teaching them about financial literacy.
“They turn into little hustlers selling the cookies,” Porter said, followed by a chuckle.
“The cookies really sell themselves, though – especially the mint… It’s just such an iconic cookie and the name associated with it. We have no problem. People are buying by the case.”
The cookie season, which began at the end of September, typically runs through November.
Rempel’s unit, the 168th Winnipeg Embers, recently went around River Park South and conducted door-to-door sales with a credit and debit card machine.
Other youth groups have been setting up in grocery store parking lots and other busy public spaces to move their stock.
“Part of the goal of the youth members doing the cookie sales and not just the adults pushing the cookies is that they do get something out of it,” she said, adding students build self-esteem by greeting strangers and selling boxes.
Rempel said the girls are also learning how to manage money, market a product and communicate with customers.
The biggest challenge for groups right now is not selling cookies but rather recruiting volunteers, she added.
She noted it was particularly challenging to recruit interested guiders coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participant numbers have bounced back, so there are waitlists for girls who want to join, she said, because there are not enough volunteers to run programs.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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