The first cookie sales by an individual Scout unit was by the Mistletoe Troop
in Oklahoma, in December 1917 at their local high school. In 1922, the Girl
Scout magazine The American Girl suggested cookie sales as a fund-raiser,
providing a simple cookie recipe from a regional director for the Girl Scouts
of Chicago.

Six types of cookies were being sold nationwide by 1956 and today, up to 28
varieties of Girl Scout cookies are offered. As of 2007, sales were estimated
at about 200 million boxes per year.

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