New York City’s teen cookie queen is hanging on to her crown.
Brooklyn 13-year-old Ashleigh F. has secured her title as the Big Apple’s top Girl Scout cookie seller for the second year in a rowafter baking up new tactics to overcome the organization’s overall crumbling sales.
Ashleigh of Bay Ridge hawked a mouth-watering 3,013 boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs this season — a total that slightly surpassed the goal she outlined for the sweet season.
“I pushed my goal up by 500 more boxes than I did last year. It wasn’t that I expected to win, but I really, really hoped that I would get it again,” the teen told The Post.
The pressure was on from the get-go, Ashleigh said, adding that the rewards she reaped for her troop after selling 2,528 boxes of cookies last year were a major motivator in stepping up yet again.
She was able to take her 30-member troupe to Six Flags free of charge.
“Some days I do feel a little bit of pressure,” said the cadette with Troop 2601.
“I’m the top seller in the city, so that also means I’m the top seller in my troupe and I give the most money to the troupe, and I just feel like I have to keep doing that so all the little kids can have the same experience as I did,” she said.
Friendly competition pushed the eighth-grader to hustle.
There was just an 80-box difference between her and the No. 2 seller last year, who hailed from Staten Island.
“I mean this in no mean way, but I didn’t want the Brownie to beat me!” Ashleigh admitted of her friendly foe.
But Ashleigh was also battling overall sales across the five boroughs plummeting this year for a second year in a row, dropping to just 1,035,000 boxes of sold cookies and another 65,000 donated through the Gift of Caring program.
The year before, sales were at 1.1 million boxes — still a far cry from the record-breaking 2.2 million boxes peddled during the 2020-2021 season.
To help try to make up the deficit this year — and personallly come out on top — Ashleigh made several tactical changes to her saleswoman approach.
She ditched camping out at subway stations to catch hungry commuters on her way home after realizing she was only selling 50 boxes an hour compared to the 70 she could sell in Prospect Park.
Ashleigh also started packing on the charm once she had already reeled in her customers by enticing them to grab another box or to try out a new flavor.
But her biggest success lay in realizing that sales were strongest at each end of the cookie-selling season, which kicks off in January and wraps up before April.
“In the beginning of the season, you have all your 10-box orders that get you through cookie season. But people don’t realize that’s not going to last you the year. Then they come back at the end of the season,” the sharp-minded saleswoman shared.
“The last time we were out, it was a sell-out day. We had 16 cases of cookies [each with 12 boxes inside] and a lot of people did buy because I did tell them, ‘That this is the last day!’ “
Shari Krull, the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, described Ashleigh’s leadership and energy as “extraordinary.
“She mobilized her network in a way that truly reflects the spirit of the Girl Scout Cookie Program—entrepreneurship, confidence and community engagement,” Krull told The Post.
Ashleigh wasn’t the only one who climbed to the top this year.
Amelia, a Brownie, became the top seller for Manhattan, while cookie star Kalila was named No. 1 for The Bronx. Queens peddler Julia and Staten Island junior Antonella also secured their borough’s top spots.
The Girl Scouts asked that the high-performing scouts’ last names not be used to protect the girls’ privacy.
In other developments, Thin Mints emerged as the new top favorite in the Big Apple, edging out Samoas for the first time in years. Tagalongs came in third place.
For Ashleigh, the best part of this season was the interactions she had with customers, from standing on snow piles to sell to people too cold to leave their cars, to hawking a box nearly every week to a dedicated neighborhood couple she had become friendly with.
“It’s fun. I get to hang out with my friends. It’s fun for me, so I do it,” she said.
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