Food for Thought
Halloween Inflation... More Tricks, Less Treats?
Oct 20, 2022
Consumers are cautiously approaching the candy aisle this year wondering how much it’s going to cost to keep trick-or-treaters happy. Well, using Datasembly’s real-time, hyper-local and shareable data we took a look at the top 10 Halloween brands and bags of assorted candies to determine the YOY list price change from 2021 to 2022. Datasembly collects billions of grocery and retail pricing records from every store at hundreds of retailers EVERY DAY and using that data, we took a look at the following brands - some favorites and classics:
So what’s it going to be, a trick or a treat? Well, that depends on which candy is being purchased. The Datasembly Grocery Price Index, which measures weekly changes in pricing for grocery products using data collected from over 130,000 stores and over 180 retail banners that span over 30,000 zip codes across the United States, reports that the candy category, as a whole, has increased 21% YOY, but fortunately SOME of the candy on this list won’t cost that much. The average price change for these ten brands, plus bags of assorted candies common during Halloween, has increased 13% since 2021.
The lowest percent change was Nestle Crunch and Butterfinger at 6% and 7%, respectively. However, the highest increases were Skittles with a 42% increase and Starburst at 35% - well above average. The average bag of assorted candies increased by 8% and the other individual brands all produced between an 11%-13% YOY price increase.
What does all of this mean? It means inflation has continued in 2022, and candy is no exception. The increase in the cost of sugar, supply chain issues and energy costs are definitely affecting this year’s Halloween candy prices. So as preparations are being made for trick-or-treaters this year it’s going to cost more to give more treats and less tricks.