Chocolate and Candy Play a Enjoyable and Distinctive Position at Halloween

The Halloween season is the Super Bowl for the confectionery trade – a second that mixes custom, nostalgia, enjoyable, and innovation. Last Halloween, shopper enthusiasm was mirrored within the $7.4 billion Americans spent on seasonal chocolate and sweet, which accounted for 18% of all confectionery retail gross sales in 2024. With the season in full swing and Halloween night time quickly approaching, we’re reminded of the distinctive function chocolate and sweet play in making this a vacation not like some other.

You may need observed that the thrill for Halloween begins over the summer time, with shopper traits like “Summerween” and “Aug-tober” signaling the early launch of Halloween merchandise in shops. It’s a manifestation of shopper demand for this time of yr and the need to get pleasure from it for so long as attainable. In our current Halloween survey, we discovered that one-quarter of Americans bought chocolate and sweet earlier than October even begins. In complete, 94% of Americans will share chocolate and sweet with family and friends for the Halloween season.

Our analysis additionally revealed extra about shopper attitudes and behaviors. For occasion, chocolate, gummy sweet, and sweet corn are perennial favorites that hold all people happy – from grandparents to first-time trick-or-treaters. However, there’s controversy in regards to the “correct” method to get pleasure from sweet corn – greater than half of Americans eat the entire piece directly, however 28% go for the slim white finish first and 15% will begin on the wider yellow finish. Plus, 83% of fogeys admitted they’ll sneak one thing for themselves from their youngsters’ Halloween haul.

Interestingly (as highlighted in our new report Getting to Know Candy Consumers 2025), there’s one thing very thrilling occurring proper now with non-chocolate sweet. Last yr, non-chocolate sweet generated $2.5 billion through the eight-week lead as much as Halloween, a 6.5% improve year-over-year. Further, since 2019, the class has grown by almost $5 billion – a rise of virtually 70% pushed primarily by the Gen Z and Millennial demographic.

Perhaps the most important takeaway this Halloween season is that customers perceive that chocolate and sweet are treats, not meal replacements or center-of-the-plate meals and embrace them as such. While they’re desirous to see their favourite seasonal merchandise return to retailer cabinets and share them with trick-or-treaters, they know that sweet is a deal with. People within the U.S. get pleasure from chocolate and sweet 2-3 instances per week, averaging simply 40 energy and about one teaspoon of added sugar per day, which incorporates particular events like Halloween.

Part of the magic of Halloween is its rarity – and the way chocolate and sweet sweeten our recollections and convey us nearer to one another. To assist customers select the correct deal with for any event, chocolate and sweet corporations are providing extra selection in pack sizes and portion choices than ever earlier than – all whereas reminding customers that sweet is a deal with and never a center-of-the-plate meals. As a results of trade alignment round Always A Treat, chocolate and sweet corporations are serving to customers handle their consumption of energy and added sugar whereas nonetheless having fun with the enjoyable and distinctive confectionery merchandise that the Halloween season brings. Chocolate and sweet are a small a part of our diets, however an enormous a part of our lives.

As folks in neighborhoods throughout the nation carve the jack-o-lanterns, don their costumes, and activate the porch lights for trick-or-treaters, I can’t wait to see all of the ways in which chocolate and sweet make this Halloween one other candy reminiscence.