Americans Buy Lots of Halloween Candy
Whether or not trick-or-treating will happen, sales of fall candy have jumped 13% this year.
Sep 25, 2020 | 2 min read
WASHINGTON—While the kids might or might not head out trick-or-treating this year, Halloween candy will be consumed. U.S. Halloween candy sales have skyrocketed 13% over last year, according to IRI and the National Confectioners Association, USA Today/The Associated Press reports. That’s a much larger increase than the typical single-digit bumps.
Halloween chocolate sales have risen 25%, fueled in part by earlier Oct. 31 displays at dollar stores, ShopRite and Meijer, among other stores. But Americans are also more in a celebratory mood as the pandemic drags on. That has spelled good news for candy makers, for which the 10-week Halloween season accounts for nearly 14% of their annual sales.
Ferrara Candy Co., maker of Brach’s Candy Corn, saw online demand spike three months ahead of its usual season, with some stores requesting shipments earlier than usual too. However, late October sales could falter if the pandemic nixes trick-or-treating. For Mars Wrigley, 55% of its Halloween candy sales occur during the last two weeks of October.
Already, some cities, such as Antigo, Wisconsin, and Springfield, Massachusetts, have canceled trick-or-treating, while other officials, like New York’s governor, have announced no plans to ban the holiday. The Hershey Company and the Halloween & Costume Association and Mars Wrigley and the National Safety Council are all providing information to consumers on how to trick-or-treat safely.
With that uncertainty, candy makers are trying to customize bag size or offer fewer Halloween-themed candy bags. “We’re trying to cover all the bases because each market is going to celebrate a little bit differently,” said Tim LeBel, Mars Wrigley chief Halloween officer and head of U.S. sales, in response to the unknown outcomes this holiday season.
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