Informed Citizens

Green River Ordinance doesn’t impact Girl Scout cookie sales

Green River Ordinances prohibiting door-to-door solicitation are common in the United States. The nickname comes from Green River, Wyoming, where the first such ordinance was enacted in 1931.

Holyoke established its version of the ordinance in 1939. In 2015 it was updated to outline some exceptions to the rule. So don’t worry, Girl Scouts are free to sell their cookies door to door.

Sec. 5.08.010.
Soliciting, hawking and peddling prohibited; declared nuisance.

The practice of going in and upon private residences and premises in the city, by solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, itinerant merchants and transient vendors of merchandise (including vendors of magazines, pamphlets and catalogs) not having been requested or invited to do so by the owners or occupants of the private residences or premises, for the purpose of soliciting orders for the sale of goods, wares and merchandise, or for the purpose of disposing of or peddling or hawking the same (including magazines, catalogs and pamphlets), is declared to be a nuisance, except the following classes of persons otherwise engaging in door-to-door commercial solicitation shall not be required to obtain a permit otherwise required by this chapter:

(1) Delivery persons or route persons who are engaged in the business of servicing and soliciting in connection with sales and delivery routes of newspapers, milk and bread;

(2) All companies that have a franchise agreement with the city;

(3) Persons advocating civic, religious, charitable or political causes;

(4) Members of a nationally recognized youth organization including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of America, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, engaging in such organization’s sponsored fundraising events; and

(5) School children engaging in school authorized or sponsored fundraising activities.