Chocolate candy craziness thrives during Halloween

By: Jason Rathjen

Everyone has a candy that they hold near and dear to their hearts, and it’s likely to be chocolate. This year the top five candies in terms of gross U.S. sales all happen to contain chocolate.

According to a survey done by Information Resources, Inc., a Chicago-based market research firm, the top five selling candies in the United States are, in order, Reese’s ($505.89 million), M&M’s ($500.82 million) , Snickers ($456.91 million), Hershey’s ($324.36 million) and Kit-Kat ($306.51 million). An interesting trend to point out is that all of the top five are manufactured by either Hershey’s or Mars, and these two accounted for nearly 88 percent of candy sales combined.

Rounding out the top 10 were Twix 4 To Go, 3 Musketeers, Hershey’s Cookies ‘N’ Creme, Milky Way and Almond Joy. Again, all of the candies are manufactured by either Hershey’s or Mars, and all of them contain chocolate. It’s safe to say that America is a chocolate lover considering 72 percent of all candy spending this Halloween will be on chocolate. Last year $12.6 billion was spent on chocolate alone in the United States.

So this Halloween, take a look at what you buy to hand out to the trick or treaters that rush your front door. There is a high likelihood that it contains chocolate. It also is probably manufactured by Hershey’s or Mars, considering they control a large majority of the candy market. No matter what it is that you hand out this Halloween, you are most likely contributing to the profits of either company.