Grocery pickup and delivery platform Instacart has revealed insights surrounding consumers’ Halloween candy buying habits.
According to a survey of more than 2,000 Americans conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Instacart:
- 72 percent of Americans like Halloween
- 24 percent of Americans say Halloween is their favorite holiday
- 7 percent of Americans said they dread Halloween
- 82 percent of Americans say they purchase Halloween candy
Instacart also revealed the top-selling Halloween candy brands in 2021:
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Peanut M&M’S
- M&M’S
- Snickers
- Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
- Twizzlers
- Kit Kat
- Twix
- Starburst
- Milky Way
The company’s survey found that 84 percent of the people who buy Halloween candy will buy chocolate, while 56 percent will purchase fruity and chewy candy.
Additionally, 23 percent of Americans are candy loyalists. Of those who are candy loyalists, 65 percent have been buying the same candy for five or more years, and 40 percent have been buying the same types of Halloween candy for 10 or more years. On the contrary, 25 percent of Americans say they always change the candy they buy, and 32 percent report going back and forth between a few of their favorite types of candy.
Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Americans report they now love a type of Halloween candy that they hated as a kid, and of those, 29 percent say they now love licorice, followed by 28 percent who developed an affinity for candy corn. On the other hand, 59 percent reported they now hate a type of Halloween candy that they loved as a kid, of whom 27 percent grew out of their candy corn phase and 21 percent now dislike chewing gum and sour candy.
Furthermore, 62 percent of Americans purchase candy on sale after the holiday.
The U.S. states that bought the most candy through Instacart in October 2021 are Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Montana and Washington, while the states that buy the least candy are Florida, Delaware, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina.
