How much for thin mints? Some Boy Scouts are raising cookie prices.

As if the sticker shock at grocery stores wasn't enough, inflation has also hit another consumer favorite: Girl Scout cookies.

When Girl Scouts in New York kicks off their annual cookie sale this week, customers will pay $7 per box for favorites like Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs, up from $5 last year.

“It's been six years since we raised the price of cookies,” said Meridith Maskara, the executive director of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, which represents 25,000 members across the five boroughs. “Girl Scouts are not immune to the rising costs of living.”

Across the country, Girl Scouts have seen an increase in cookie prices in recent years. But they don't see them all on the same level. That's because the 111 councils that make up the Girl Scouts of the USA operate as individual nonprofits and negotiate separate contracts with the two bakeries licensed to manufacture the cookies. The various municipalities also decide when the cookies are sold.

“While prices have remained stable in many areas for years, some communities have made the difficult decision to shift prices,” the Girl Scouts of the USA said in an emailed statement. The intention, the report added, is to pay for the rising costs and “continue to provide robust support to local forces.”

So while cookie prices in New York are rising to $7 this year, Girl Scouts in some parts of New Jersey, for example, are charging $6 per box. That's up from $5 or $5.50 last year. And other municipalities do not increase prices at all.

“In 2021, we went from $4 to $5 per box,” said Jennifer Norton, a troop leader for girls ages 9 to 11 in Hendersonville, NC. “But this year our cookie prices have not changed.”

For decades, Boy Scouts have set up tables outside stores to take orders, and parents have pushed family members and co-workers to buy boxes of cookies during typically short sales periods. While some buy the cookies simply because they love Thin Mints, others buy because they were once Girl Scouts themselves or because they support the organization's broader mission.

However, as cookie prices rise, there is some concern that this will result in fewer boxes being sold and less money available for programming or outings for the girls' troops. Although in some cases the higher prices could mean that the money going to the troops remains about the same, even if the number of boxes sold is smaller.

“We are aiming to sell 1.3 million packages, but that goal is lower than last year's level due to the price increase,” said Ms. Maskara of the Greater New York City Council, adding: “Customers who used to have four packages for $20 can now purchase three packages for $21.

Elizabeth Franke, the leader of an eighth-grade group of girls in East Windsor, N.J., who has had three price increases from $4 in 2018 to $6 per box, said she expected her group's repeat customers to remain loyal. On a recent Sunday afternoon, when the temperature was 80 degrees, the girls in her group sold 74 boxes of cookies from a table outside a local Walmart.

“People who are going to buy the cookies will still buy them,” Ms. Franke said. “Sometimes they were Girl Scouts themselves or their daughter or mother was a Girl Scout.”

While rising inflation in recent years has caused food prices to rise, that's only part of the reason Girl Scout cookie prices are rising.

For a $6 box of cookies sold by some troops in New Jersey, about $1.29 goes to ABC Bakers, one of two bakeries in the country that pays licensing fees to Girl Scouts of the USA to make the official Girl Scout cookies , according to an infographic from Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey. The other is Little Brownie Bakers, owned by the Ferrero Group. Neither bakery returned calls or emails requesting comment.

As much as $3.73 from each box of cookies goes to shipping, restocking and credit card fees, as well as to the county to maintain camps and properties and pay for programming. That leaves the Girl Scout troops with 75 cents to $1.35 per box in revenue.

The money the Girl Scouts make from the annual cookie sale goes toward programming or outings, said Ms. Norton of the North Carolina troop. Her troop has used the proceeds for programs in coding and robotics, as well as American Sign Language. They also hope to save money to eventually take a trip to Savannah, Georgia, where a museum is located at the Girl Scouts' first headquarters.

Many involved with the Girl Scouts hope these goals will convince potential customers to keep buying cookies, even though they may cost a little more.

“We're not in the cookie business,” said Ms. Maskara of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York. “We are concerned with the empowerment of girls.”