Sweets Companies Are Really Hoping You Buy Halloween Candy This Year

Halloween is coming early this year, with candy displays already up in some stores

With full knowledge that Halloween — and, more importantly, trick-or-treating — is going to look different in a pandemic, some candy brands are taking extra precautions in an effort to bolster sales during what is usually their best season.

For example, Hershey got a head start by asking retailers to set up their Halloween displays earlier than the typical mid-August or early September timeline, CNN reports. Hershey is also keeping more of its candy in the normal packaging, rather than the seasonal Halloween wrappers, boxes, and bags.

Mondelez, the company behind Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, and other sweets and snacks, told CNN that it will focus on family-size packs of its bestselling products, predicting that more families will have smaller gatherings rather than let their children go out for trick-or-treating.

Mars Wrigley, which makes Skittles, Snickers, and other well-known candy brands, is going to devote more resources to stocking up product for e-commerce, Ad Age reports.

But overall, Halloween candy sales might not actually suffer that much, given Americans’ quarantine eating patterns the past few months. Consumers have reportedly turned to more snacking and familiar foods during the COVID-19 crisis, apparently seeking comfort in a strange and stressful time. In fact, this year more than ever, you would have a good excuse to demolish an entire family-size pack of Twix on your own in one Halloween sitting.

And in other news…

• A bipartisan group of senators have urged the U.S. to remove last fall’s 25 percent tariffs on European food, wine, and spirits, in an effort to offer some economic relief to hard-hit restaurants, retailers, importers, and distributors. [CNBC]
• American Airlines will resume its hot-food service in airport lounges once again. The menu will be limited, and instead of self-serve buffet-style, the food will be doled out by employees. [Delish]
• Zomato, one of India’s biggest food delivery companies, is giving all women and trans employees 10 days of “period leave” a year. [CNN]
• Chipotle’s new “Tony Hawk burrito” is apparently just a regular chicken burrito, albeit one that comes with access to a demo for Hawk’s Pro Skater video game. Radical! [Thrillist]
• Never a good sign when your Dear Prudie advice letter complaining about other parents contains the phrase: “I couldn’t believe that they served my son spicy curries without even calling to ask us if that would be OK!” [Slate]

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]