The King Soopers strike could cost Colorado Girl Scouts hundreds of thousands of dollars in cookie sales

Colorado Girls Scouts are having a harder time getting boxes of Adventurefuls, Thin Mints and Samoas into the hands of hungry cookie-eaters as the metro Denver King Soopers strike drags further into the cookie-selling season.

The grocer cancelled all cookie booths planned at striking locations until Feb. 20 due to safety concerns, Girl Scouts of Colorado spokesperson Catherine Schofield said. “We had no part in this decision. As other locations start to strike we are required to not host booths there as well.”

That could take a big bite out of the 3.7 million packages of cookies Colorado girls sold last year, which earned them $2 million to fund things like service projects and international travel. 

Leanna Clark, CEO of Girl Scouts of Colorado, said there are 505 troops in the Denver metro area where the strike is taking place and around 470 of those will be impacted. 

Workers at 77 metro Denver King Soopers stores walked off the job Feb. 6. The timing was terrible for the green-and-tan-bannered brigade, as cookie-selling season started Feb. 2 and goes through March 16, Clark said. 

Two Pueblo stores struck on Feb. 7 and others could walk out, too, when their contracts expire on Saturday, Feb. 15. 

King Soopers has historically reserved the first two weeks of cookie-selling season for Girl Scouts to set up shop outside its stores, company spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge said.  

The company in a news release said it is proud to stand with the Girl Scouts by extending their cookie-selling dates in front of stores and making a $15,000 donation to support their programs.  

But Clark said lost sales over one of the scouts’ biggest weekends will impact their bottom line. 

“Last weekend was really big, as it was the first full weekend of cookie sales, and it was Super Bowl weekend,” she said. “So everybody’s hitting the grocery store, right? So there’s definitely going to be an impact.” 

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 represents more than 10,000 Front Range supermarket workers currently on a planned two-week strike in protest asking for higher pay and better staffing at stores. 

King Soopers management said in a news release that it was “willing to bargain toward a deal that invests in employees while keeping groceries affordable.” But talks between the entities ended Jan. 16, after both filing unfair labor practices lawsuits against each other. 

Negotiations took another turn Tuesday as the grocer said it is seeking a temporary restraining order to block employees from picketing in front of its stores. 

Kim Cordova, president of the Local 7 union chapter, said members know the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day are important to supermarkets and the timing of the strike “is based on the fact that they refuse to bargain.” 

But to the thousands of Colorado Girl Scouts who include Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors ages 5 to 18, the strike is threatening the funding they need for the rest of the year, Clark said. 

It’s hard to know what the impact will be until the dust settles, she added. “But those dollars stay here in Colorado.”  

Last weekend, she drove around the Denver metro area talking to troops about what they wanted to use their cookie funds for. 

One troop wants to do a service project for refugee kids, she said. Another wants to take an adventure trip to Belize. And a lot of the girls use the dollars to pay for summer camp. 

But as protests continue in front of stores where the Girl Scouts would have had their booths blasted with bling in hopes of attracting sweet-toothed spenders, other retail partners are stepping in to help them. 

Clark said most negotiations for booths or table spots at chain stores, like Walmart, Safeway and King Soopers, happen long before the selling starts, but that she’ll also call places like Mariel Boutique, in Cherry Creek, where she knows the owner, and ask if the girls can set up there.  

With the strike in motion, “troop leaders now are also reaching out to their local Ace Hardware stores, or calling small businesses in the same little shopping centers as King Soopers stores to see if they can secure booths there,” she said.   

The Facebook group Girl Scouts of Colorado has a “Cookie News Alert!” dated Feb. 5 at the top of its page that says the product team was reaching out to other retail partners to potentially add booth locations in the “ever-evolving situation.” 

Comments showed a range of reactions to the strike, with one person writing, “I’m happy to support a troop who isn’t crossing the picket line to sell! Send me a link (to the Girls Scouts online cookie store)!” and another, “Unreal. Last time they went on strike we sold cookies … business as usual. Why would we cancel now?” 

A recent Colorado Sun poll shows readers taking more than two sides on the strike, with 66% saying they would “never, ever cross a picket line” if they needed to run to the store for something, and the rest split between those who didn’t feel as strongly and those who would shop at a store where union workers were picketing. 

Some people on the Scouts’ Facebook page called out the many teaching opportunities the strike is providing. 

“I’m proud of the conversations and questions my 8yo Brownie has been asking about this,” one wrote.

“What a great opportunity for the girls in your council to see an example of people standing up for honest and fair pay and respecting themselves,” wrote another. 

However, one concerned commenter on the scouts’ page said, “Thanks for this update but it sucks. I was at a King Soopers in Arvada tonite and there was a union rep protesting, projecting a live stream on the building of police being called. Very uncomfortable.” 

But Clemmer Heinrichs, a 15-year-old in Highlands Ranch Troop 65434, said she has embraced the Colorado Girl Scouts’ new reality by “getting out the wagon” and pitching cookies to her neighbors, plus having two booths at different retail locations instead of just one at King Soopers.

The extra hustle has put her pretty much on track to earn enough money to travel to California and meet the Disney Imagineers “who develop rides, make costumes, write music, etc.,” she said.