As the first year of a new cookie-selling strategy draws to a close, the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys are doing something they've never done before: They're taking cookies back.

Although officials are calling the Cookies Now program a sweet success, a sizable minority ordered more than they could sell.

"We've never allowed any returns before, but we thought with the new model the council should share some of that financial risk," said Chief Operating Officer Tisha Bolger. "It's not to our benefit, by any means, to have a troop that's not financially solvent or successful."

On Saturday, troops will be able to return unopened cases, which will be donated to deployed U.S. troops, food shelves and Meals on Wheels programs. Bolger anticipates that fewer than 70,000 boxes of cookies will come in. Overall, she said sales are estimated up almost 17.5 percent this year, to 5.4 million boxes, very likely making the district the top sellers in the country.

The sales season also has been extended to March 27.

This year, the council switched from the traditional advance-order sales to a system that requires troops to preorder cookies, then hand them directly to buyers in one-to-one neighborhood transactions and at central cookie booths. The idea was less footwork for girls, and for customers, a real product, right away.

On Monday, staff checked in with 619 troop leaders. In the unscientific poll, about three-quarters reported that they had managed their inventories well, said district spokeswoman Sarah Mastrian. "They have no surplus, or maybe a couple boxes," she said.

The district held an initial Comeback Day on President's Day weekend, but some families said that it was too soon in the selling season, that a snowstorm kept them snowbound. Bolger replied that the date was chosen because it was before many of the cookie booths really got going.

"For us it was important to look at trying to redeploy those cookies," she said. At the same time, she said she was surprised how many troops were supplementing their orders early, with multiple cases of extra cookies.

Managers received a guidebook, three hours of training, and access to software that used last year's sales figures to help them to calculate how many boxes to order this year. Staff members also were on hand.

Bolger granted that the system required organization and intensive communication between families and the troops' cookie managers.

"They're the ones that really got squeezed," she said. "We are really looking very closely at that. That role was difficult; it was more difficult than we had wanted or planned."

In Zimmerman, Melissa Weber is both leader and cookie manager for a troop of Daisies, Girl Scouts' youngest members -- kindergartners and first-graders. She'll be in Maple Grove Saturday to return the 18 cases now stacked in her garage.

"It's just so hard to know, especially when you have girls in their first year of doing it, how many are you truly going to sell," she said.

The troop ordered 100 cases, or 1,200 boxes of cookies, for nine girls to sell. Daisies aren't allowed to staff cookie booths, and Weber learned that her small neighborhood is home to 18 Girl Scouts, including her daughter, Mackenzie.

Invoices and deposits didn't always sync; a few families dropped out early, she said.

But the new system really worked for other troops. In Brooklyn Park, Shellie Marvin's Girl Scouts sold an average of 261 boxes apiece, up from 182 last year. Most of those were sold door to door. The girls, 9- and 10-year-olds, from Osseo, Maple Grove and Brooklyn Park, wrapped up sales at the end of February.

"Compare to that girls having to go door to door, then try to find that person at home again in two to four weeks," she said. "There were times in previous years when I had lots of customers' cookies sitting in my living room because we couldn't deliver them. The old system was easier for me, but the benefit to the girls way outweighs the extra work I've had to do."

Bolger said the district will stick with the new system for next year but will do a thorough debriefing after the program winds down. Some possible changes could include better training for managers and pairing new troops with mentors.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409