Feb 19 2007
It’s All About the Candy
I opened the weekly sales flyer for a drugstore chain and see the expected heart-shaped items on sale.
What I didn’t expect to see was egg-shaped items on sale IN THE SAME FLYER.
I guess I should be grateful that the hearts were in one section, the eggs in another, unlike the image you see here.
You’re thinking, “Ms. Q, did you just fly in from Planet Clueless?”
No. I am well aware of the fact that we start selling for any given holiday 3 months early.
I just wasn’t prepared to see Peeps having a conversation with Sweethearts.
It was just too much. This was Freaky Shit and I needed to get to the bottom of it.
Forget the red wine, it was time to take the brain to new places.
I needed a shot of Scotch.
I can’t do this too often. At four-foot-ten-and-three-quarters sipping Scotch exacts a price.
I sip my Scotch. Neat.
Oh…kay.
As I look at the flyer, I begin to see a pattern. I sip more Scotch. 
I flip through the pages again. Sip.
The ads begin to blur and the unimportant sale items like toasters, toilet cleaner and cat food fade into the background.
I see The Pattern and the pattern is candy.
If candy can be tied to a holiday, that holiday is gonna move up a month or three.
Halloween is obvious. It’s ALL about candy. So Halloween candy shows up, what, around Labor Day?
And just before the Halloween candy goes on sale, it’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas and the red and green Hershey Kisses will line the store shelves.
You’re still kissing under the mistletoe when the red-flocked heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates overtake the Lifesavers Christmas Storybook.
Now the iconic Easter candy, Marshmallow Peeps, is sharing ad space with Sweetheart Conversation Hearts!
Before that last Peep has uh, peeped, the Candy Holidays have one last hurrah with Mothers’ Day.
After which we all have a brief respite until Labor Day.
So far, no one has figured out how to market Memorial Day besides having storewide sales.
I’m thankful that I’m not seeing chocolate soldiers on the shelves.
Be thankful for Thanksgiving!
In the US, you have the Thanksgiving buffer to act as an important marketing bridge. In the UK, as soon as Halloween is over, bam! Out come all the Christmas decorations, cookies, candies, and all the red and green. So we are subjected to what amounts to an extra month of Christmas marketing!
I think I like the way the Dutch do it best, as they have their Christmas all done by December 5th!
I like Halloween candy only because you get a big bag of small candy bars.
I can’t eat one of those “super-size” chocolate bars! The sugar rush will give me a big fat headache. But, those little bite-sized nuggets that come in the big bag at Halloween? I want to buy those things year round!
DR: I think Christmas has managed to infiltrate Halloween here in the States. The candy may not be on the shelves, but you’ll start seeing the cards and decorations slowly taking up shelf space.
You’re right about T-Day. It does act as a buffer. I can’t imagine jumping directly from Halloween ghosts to the Christmas Spirit.
HMTKSteve: I remember when I was a kid (when my first ‘computer’ game was “Pong”) I loved those miniature candy bars that came out during Halloween! I wished they were all year round. They seem to be all year round these days. I avoid the regular M&Ms these days. You can’t stop at one. I used to buy the canes, the ones with the figures on top, and I’d eat the contents of the entire cane. I don’t get a headache, I fall into a sugar coma.