Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween Candy Facts: 12 Things You Might Not Have Known

Halloween is a treasured American holiday -- and it is one where candy rules. Grocery stores and pharmacies begin devoting aisles to trick-or-treating booty for weeks before the 31st. It has been reported that the average American eats 24 pounds of candy a year, and most of that is likely consumed right around this time. We all have our favorite Halloween treats, but do you know which one is the most widely bought? Which one is the most widely searched for? The trends for what Halloween candy consumers look for is also changing, and it varies per state. New York searches most for kosher candy, and Wisconsin for gummy worms. Any idea on which state is the most interested in gluten-free candy?
Want to take a guess at how many millions of pounds of candy we consume each year? Here are the answers, and more interesting tidbits you may not have know about our Halloween candy culture.

1. Candy In Weight
Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy a year for Halloween.
What does that look like? Imagine 16 billion fun size Snickers bars or 158 trillion individual Candy Corns.

2. Biggest Candy Sales
A whopping 90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week, taking a strong lead compared to other holidays. Almost 65 million pounds is sold during the week leading up to Easter and only 48 million pounds during Valentine's week.

But really, how can they compete? Halloween is the only time of year where the sweet stuff is given away by the handfuls and left in bowls on people's doorsteps, free for the taking.

3. $2 Billion In Sales
Over 10 percent of annual candy sales happen the days leading up to Halloween -- that is nearly $2 billion dollars in sales.

4. Chocolate Wins
Chocolate is clearly the preferred choice of sweets for many. Of the 1.9 billion sold in Halloween candy each year, $1.2 billion was on chocolate candy and only $680 million on sugar candy.

5. Candy Corn A Clear Favorite
The top selling candy: Candy Corn. Americans purchase over 20 million pounds of it a year, though it is unlikely that every last one of those millions of candies was actually consumed.

6. Top Chocolate Sellers
After the beloved Candy Corn, the leading best sellers are as follows: Snickers, Reese's, Kit Kat and M&M'S.

7. Searching For Candy Corn?
Candy Corn is the most searched-for candy term in Google -- more popular than candy apples, gummy worms and candy pumpkins. Searches for Candy Corn are up 10 percent from October 2010.

8. Who Loves Candy Corn?
Out of all 50 states, Alabama searched for candy corn the most! 

9. Candy By State
Which state searched the most for organic candy? Colorado. Oregon searched most for gluten-free candy and Kentucky took the lead in sugar-free.

10. Gluten-Free vs. Sugar-Free
This Halloween more people are searching for gluten-free candy than sugar-free candy. Google searches for gluten-free candy are currently 20 percent higher than searches for sugar-free candy.

11. Ultimate Candy Day
The day of the year with the most candy sales? October 28th. And of all the 365 days in the year, the top five candy selling days are all in October.

12. Halloween Splurgin'
Event though the economy is tightening everyone's budget, that does not stop them from splurging a bit on this one holiday. The average American household spends $44 a year on Halloween candy. Now, that's a lot of candy.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. no problem I found the info interesting and it was very timely to share it =)

    ReplyDelete