New Report By Rite Aid Sheds Light On America's Halloween Candy Habits

Full-service pharmacy Rite Aid, together with its subsidiaries, Elixir, Bartell Drugs, and Health Dialog, operate more than 2,300 retail locations in 17 states. Rite Aid isn't the largest pharmacy chain in terms of prescription revenues, per Drug Channels.net, but its annual revenue (up to $24,568,255 in 2022 per 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K) and its many decades in the business since its founding in 1962 (via Rite Aid's story) put the retail chain in a reasonable position to draw a number of intriguing conclusions about the Halloween candy preferences and habits of the American consumer.

Indeed, that is precisely what Rite Aid has done. In an October 12th press release, Rite Aid shared analyzed data regarding its sales of "bagged candy units and other items" during October 2021 to come up with an array of what it refers to as "trick-or-trivia" on American candy sales. Among other things, this new report by Rite Aid sheds light on which Halloween treats might be hits and which might be misses this year. Feel free to use this info to become one of your neighborhood's can't-miss trick-or-treat destinations — or simply to make candy-purchasing decisions that will not leave you wondering what to do with all the Halloween candy leftovers. Let's open this package of sweet morsels, shall we?

Between October 1 and October 31, 2021, Rite Aid sold over 2.8 million pounds of candy, per a company press release. So how about we take a look at America's candy habits surrounding the one day of the year when children are allowed to knock on the doors of strangers and demand candy — or else.

According to Rite Aid's new report, nearly half of all bagged candy sales occurred in the seven days leading up to Halloween in 2021, with Halloween, itself, representing the peak, and M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins, and Milky Way dominate Rite Aid Halloween candy sales. In general, chocolate products are favored by nearly two-thirds of Rite Aid's Halloween candy shoppers, but non-chocolate fan favorites apparently include Skittles, Tootsie Pops, and Haribo trick-or-treat-themed gummy candies. 

As for candy corn, which Rite Aid characterizes as polarizing and whose allergens were at issue in a recent recall, if you were to line up every single candy corn sold during the 2021 Halloween season, you'd be able to lay a trail running between Mexico and Oregon. That's 138,000 pounds of candy corn. Hansel & Gretel, beware!