Wearing a lime green vest, dotted with patches and gold award buttons, it was clear that 10-year-old Angela Rosser of troop 1177 is proud to be a Girl Scout.
"It’s really fun right now," said Rosser, as she picked up a mobile phone.
Rosser is a member of Girl Scouts San Diego. Because of that, she's part of a two-week pilot program to test a mobile credit card device called “mophie marketplace.”
Rosser demonstrates how easily it worked. First, she downloaded a “mophie” application on her mom's smart phone. Then she slipped a small card reader onto the bottom of the phone and swiped a credit card.
Next, she filled in the desired number of cookie boxes on the phone’s screen and emailed a customer receipt.
Once the order was complete, the credit information and transaction was automatically erased from the phone.
It took less than a minute, and when it was done, Rosser smiled as she handed over two boxes of Thin Mints and a box of Samoas.
Rosser said using the device has improved her cookie sales and taught her troop a lot about credit cards.
“I think it teaches girls what credit cards are like. Some kids think they can just use credit cards for everything and they don’t realize it’s going to run out eventually. Now we know better," said Rosser.
In the first week of this year’s cookie selling season Rosser has sold 116 boxes of cookies. She credited her mother for her success and for helping her with all of the credit card transactions.
The money raised form selling Girl Scouts cookies is used to fund community service projects, troop activities and to pay for girls who otherwise couldn’t afford to join a troop.
