Sunday, November 1st, 2009...8:19 AM
Halloween Market Research On Jeff Bennett’s Blog
Halloween in my house rivals Christmas..it is BIG! The excitement builds for the 
costumes, trick-or-treating, candy trading and of course enjoying the fruits of all that labor…eating the candy. It was a great time sharing Halloween with some great friends. The New England weather gave us an Indian Summer evening albeit a little windy…but the rains held off the most part. Very cool to see Boston Celtics superstar Ray Allen joining in on the fun passing out candy in full costume at his house…now that is a role model!
This year Halloween is definitely like Christmas. Up late last night. Up early today. Only problem is that today is one of my favorite days of the year…get an extra hour of sleep due to the time change. I am 0-12 on this bonus day of sleep since kids. But we are having a blast with the candy.
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what kind of candy we brought home and share with all of you the results, listed in the order of most popular candy that we netted in trick-or-treat last night:
Kit Kat 17%
Snickers 12%
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups 11%
M&M 10%
Skittles 7%
Dots 6%
Charleston Chew 5%
Nestle Crunch 5%
Wompers 5%
Tootsie Rolls 4%
Tootsie Pops 4%
Butter Finger 2%
Hershey Bar 2%
Sweet Tarts 2%
Baby Ruth 2%
Milky Way 2%
Smarties 1%
Ring Pops 1%
Air Heads 1%
Reeses Stix 1%
Twix 1%
Kit Kat’s bring home the most popular candy for Halloween 2009 from our trick-or-treating, followed closely by Snickers, Reese’s and M&M’s. The Top 4 brands commanded 50% of the pillow case sack in this house. No doubt these are four popular brands. What was suprising to me is how far down the line Hershey and Twix is. In years past it seemed like these two brands were much more popular.
Good family project doing inventory, math problem of figuring out the percentages, googling Ray Allen, searching for a great Hallowen candy picture, posting the blog and now eating the candy. Got to keep everyone busy, right? Especially when the household is up at 5:45 AM…love the clocks going back to get that extra hour…of activity!
How does this compare to your research? Your favorite candy brand? Comment on this to share your views.
I hope that all of you had a Happy Halloween!
31 Comments
November 1st, 2009 at 8:36 AM
Twix was the leader here Jeff ~ Zoe got so many it started to be the joke of the night…”oh great ~ another Twix!”. They are Daddy’s favorite, so he’s a happy camper at least!
November 1st, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Thanks for the comment Jill. Twix one of my favorites too. We just did not fare well on Twix last night. Kind of funny in that respect.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Twix pulled ahead this year. Interesting, it’s been off by about 5% over the past two consecutive years. It’s been fun to watch one of my favorites enjoy a resurgence. Kit Kat, M&Ms (plain) and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were also leaders in the Turcott bags.
Tootsie rolls were DOWN this year. Interesting Tootsie Roll info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tootsie_Roll
November 1st, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Thanks for the comment Rich. Interesting factoid we visited the house of the “Tootsie Roll” family. They were generous as always but it seems that that was the only home where Tootsie Rolls were being given out. Interesting. Also our sampling was anti-Twix. Usually a favorite and surely you saw this. Fun.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:49 AM
kit kat’s for us too but our little guy is only 1 year so he’s not yet allowed to eat any of it.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:52 AM
Thanks Mike. Great to have a little one..it snaps you back into the fun of Halloween…and more candy for you!
November 1st, 2009 at 12:21 PM
West coast snickers reigns supreme. Followed close by Reese and m&ms. I am cracking up you did this. Because the first thing I made my kidz do was dump out there bags and take inventory. My oldest said “mom it looks like a lot less when you spread it all out like that ” I went on to explain the benefits of inventory counts and trade negotiations with her sister and friends. She is now handily manging her inventory and upping it’s steet value. Hee hee hee
November 1st, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Thanks Jess. Interesting to see that Snickers reigns in the Pacific Northwest. You have to do inventory to understand what you have. Supply and demand drives value. Never too early for the kids to see this. I thought it might be fun this year to post the inventory. Dont have prior year data…other than anecdotal hunch…but still surprised on Twix here. Great to compare with others on how they did last night. Modulating the intake here…but inventory dwindling on a few brands.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:46 PM
My kids make me give out the candies that they say no one buys: Sweet Tarts, Pixie Stix, Dots, Laffy Taffy. I was surprised to see Dots even hit your list. Clearly our “intel” was off this year.
Ours is the house where people take their annual photo. I love that. Total strangers line up their kids on our front terrace. They did that, as well, when we lived in Dublin. I realized then that I am really good at “maximum impact” decor on short dollars.
And I am with you, Jeff, on the importance of this holiday.
But the reality behind the front door of our house at Halloween is that only the youngest boy still does the trick or treating. He and a bunch of pals did maintain the inventory count tradition, as well as elaborate trades and negotiations.
Meanwhile, the middle guy was hosting a big party in our basement and the main inventory I was actively checking was all the guests’ car keys at the front door. Most of the kids stayed the night and my husband kept the basket of keys near his pillow all night. Enjoy those totally innocent years!
November 1st, 2009 at 1:49 PM
Jeff, I was in Germany, and Halloween isn’t popular (YET!) here. So, I can only contribute that I had a pumpkin salad (it was yummy) and a pumpkin ice cream crepe.
Rich, I’m bummed about the Tootsie Roll research. I loved them as a kid!
November 1st, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Thanks Jana. I would have thought Tootsie would have done better as well…a more economic alternative to other chocolate brands. Not so in our collaborative research here. I love the Tootsie Rolls too.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Thanks Jules. Dots made our list. Great minds think alike and maybe one of your Daily Grommet colleagues was on our tour where we picked up the Dots. All a blur now as we made alot of ground over this summer-like night. Sounds like you had a busy house. Great to see all celebrating a great holiday.
November 1st, 2009 at 1:58 PM
Thanks Jana. Glad you were able to celebrate Halloween from across the pond. Ben Bassi had a big night as we saw on Facebook. The Bennett’s had a big night here too. We all had at least one or two pieces of candy for you. Got to get a “Halloween SpreadShirt” for me next year! See you soon.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:14 PM
This year was a very good year for chocolate for the Chalifoux family!
We ended up with the more Butter Fingers than any other candy by far, followed by Snickers, Kit Kat, 3 Musketeers, Starburst, Reeses cups, Milky Way and Skittles, Double Bubble, Crunch, Hershey bars and M&M’s. My kids also got several full size bars and some classic treats like Sugar Babies, Necco wafers and Malted Milk Balls.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Donna & Craig – Thanks for sharing your haul. Interesting to see Butter Fingers @ the top of the list. Looks like a good selection. Cool to see New England favorite NECCO wafers in there…you must have visited a real traditionalist on your trick-or-treat route. Gotta love the malted milk balls. Wish we got some of them.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:06 PM
Sudbury, Ma – KitKat, Reese’s, and Hershey bars were the candy giveaway of choice. I think that this has to do with the fact that the 2 primary supermarkets in Sudbury both had giant displays pushing these ‘combo’ packages right up front.
That’s fine with us though!
November 1st, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Per my 13 year old: “Always go for the Kit Kats” – they’re the best.
Kids got Corn balls (a pre-packaged popcorn ball).
My older son says after Kit Kats, his bag is populated with Nestle Crunch Bars, Snickers, Reeses, Kit Kats and Twizzlers. He’s popping open his only package of Junior Mints now.
One house gave out cans of soda, capri sun and water. They weren’t home, but had left a sign: “soda in cooler, take one.”
The kids thought that one family was giving out Smores (or had in past years) but that house turned out to just have candy.
A few people I know gave out big only single bars (friend in CA said she had gotten 72 Krackel bars). My husband said growing up he always felt he “scored” when he got a big bar.
Next year we need to get stuff for kids with nut allergies. One of the kids who trick-or-treated with my kids is allergic to nuts. He had lots of stuff to trade, but none of the other 4 kids that came back to my house had much to trade back to him…
November 1st, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Sudbury is reporting. Thanks Zaks. Looks like Sudbury Farms has some swing in that town. None of us can complain about Kit Kat, Reeses and Hersheys. I am glad to see Hershey’s make the Top 3 there, was thinking maybe they are fleeting.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:18 PM
Thanks Claire. We got a few “scores” last night with the big bars. They were great. I am a big fan of Nestle Crunch and was disappointed that we did not get many…unless my wife maybe influenced the inventory before we counted it up.
. Interesting to hear about the soda/capri sun.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:56 PM
Reporting from the supply side, Jeff (my kids are older and more into beer and and bikinis then candy) – I bias the sample each year by adding extra Peanut M&M’s (my fav) but the kids push them aside and go for the plain M&M’s and KitKat’s in that order (which means we have more M&M Peanuts left over per dad’s scheme)
November 1st, 2009 at 5:26 PM
John, thanks for your report from the supply side in Silicon Valley. I love the Peanut Butter M&M’s too. We did not get one of them this year. Could be that there were various offerings and my kids passed as well. We want all outbound last night so there was no one minding the fort back here. This meant I could not deploy your play…which I usually do as well. There is always next year for Operation Peanut Butter M&M!
November 1st, 2009 at 7:04 PM
No candy stats from a dead end street here in Waltham… though I am curious on the update of which candy in the Bennett household is consumed first!!
ps – bringing candy into work to ‘unload’ it, doesn’t count…
November 1st, 2009 at 7:16 PM
Thanks Christine. I will see what I can do to wrestle away some candy.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:11 AM
We have no children so we didn’t bring any candy into the house, per se. But, we gave out 7 oz bags of gummy lobsters, big bars of Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Nestle Crunch and 100 Grand candy. I work from home so all the leftovers are going into work with my husband today.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Reporting from Upton – I was on the giving side of things this Halloween. So, I watched what the kids took —– ALL THINGS CHOCOLATE!!!! M&Ms, Snickers, Nestle’s Crunch, Reece’s Cups, $100,000 Bars were the all time favorite grabs!
From my vantage point, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the kid and adult costumes! I love it when everyone dresses up! A perfect witch’s night – even the moon and clouds cooperated!
One thing of note – the kids were incredibly polite, and gave us the low-down on their costumes – who they were supposed to be, how they made their get-ups —– so refreshing!!
We all had the best time – from carving the pumpkins in the afternoon, making a huge leaf pile – and, then jumping in, grazing all day long on real food (to coat the tummies), to the actual event of dressing up and trick-or-treating! A total circus of a day – and one that was captured, of course, in pics.
It IS, I agree with you, a very big night!!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 AM
Susan – thanks for the report. Great to see the Nestle Crunch. First report this year of 100 Grand as well. Send those leftovers into the office. Share the wealth!
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 AM
Thanks for the report Marcia. A second report on the 100,000 Bars…wow. Also good to see Nestle Crunch creeping up the list. No report on Twix though…hmmm. Very interesting. Halloween is a great holiday. Glad you had a great time.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 AM
We had about the same. Also had 0 Heath bars, that was the real upsetting part
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 AM
We were up in Woodstock, VT (man does that town go all out for Halloween), where rain unfortunately limited the trick or treating to a mad dash.
All the typical candy was represented. However I did notice an unusually high amount of 1. Milk Duds, 2. Wompers, and 3. Lolipops.
I had two trick or treaters below the age of 3. Which is great cause they are really to young to get what’s going on, which means the dad has to do the actually picking of the candy out of the bowl.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Thanks Matt. We got now Heath Bars either. That is a great brand. Interesting.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 AM
Thanks Mark. Woodstock, VT is a very special place indeed. Milk Duds and Wompers…wow. Sounds like Mark had a great time.
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