This time of the year is always the biggest period for candy sales as people stock up on treats to hand out during Halloween festivities. According to data obtained by Nielsen, candy corn has never been less popular, with Americans buying less of the confection each passing year.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In the data released by CNN, candy corn sales have declined steadily since 2018 with a record-low 12.7 million packages sold in 2022. By October 14th of this year, just 5.3 million packages of candy corn have been sold.
“It’s not like, ‘Yeah, it’s OK,’” author Beth Kimmerle told the news network. “Either people love it or hate it.”
With marshmallow-type products, Kimmerle says, companies are able to alter the look and flavoring much easier than candy corn. “So think about a Peep,” Kimmerle continued. “You can coat it with sugar, you can colorize that sugar, you can color the inside of it. You can make it into different shapes. There is a lot of flexibility that you can have with marshmallows.”
She added, “Gummies bounce around playfully in your mouth while you’re chewing and then they dissolve. It’s not a marshmallow, it’s not a hard candy. It’s somewhere in between. I would put it into the category of something that people feel compelled to buy because of the nostalgia factor. I remember it from my childhood, and the younger people don’t. And candy is as much about memory as it is about the actual taste.”
On the more popular side of things, chocolate is a clear-cut winner. Milk chocolate is by and large the most popular type of candy sold during the weeks leading up to halloween, which is then followed by non-chocolate chewy treats. Gummy treats fall in third place before the Top 5 is rounded out with “Other” candy and dark chocolate.
