The Red and Blue States That Like The Same Halloween Candy

Let’s take a look again this year at the Halloween sweets we prefer as a country and then what certain states like.

Where are we going? To where consumers spend their holiday money.

Halloween Candy

The Best

For the 2019 Top Ten, Skittles is still #1. But Reese’s Cups moved up from #4 to #2 since last year, M&Ms slid down to #3 from #2 and Snickers was #4 in 2018. This is the whole 2019 list:

The Worst

CandyStore says their worst list reflected sources that included BusinessInsider, Buzzfeed, and their own surveys. Still, they wound up with the same list as last year:

State Preferences

Among U.S. states, happily, we are do not have a red state blue state divide. These are only some of the examples where Red and Blue have the same #1 candy pick:

• Tennessee (R) and New Jersey(B): Tootsie Pops
• Wyoming (R) and Washington (B): Salt Water Taffy
• Arkansas (R) and California (B): Skittles
• Texas (R) and Maryland (B): Reese’s Cups

Our Bottom Line: Halloween Spending

For economists, Halloween spending is about more than candy. It also takes us to the consumption component of the GDP. While consumption has been estimated at 70 percent of the GDP, not all economists agree. But whatever the exact proportion,  we can assume that it represents a large slice of the GDP.

Halloween spending is an estimated $8.8 billion slice of our $14.7 trillion in consumption spending. The big ones are candy, decorations, costumes, and cards. Do note that while 95 percent of all Halloween shoppers spend on candy, the total is not the highest. Close to two-thirds of all Halloween shoppers are expected to spend the most on costumes:

Out of the $86.27 that the average Halloween shopper spends, close to $25 will go to candy. I guess we are spending a lot on Skittles.

My sources and more: For my top ten candy lists, it was the most fun to see each state’s candy preference at CandyStore.com and to ponder the broader significance. Then, I checked the National Retail Federation website for more facts than you need to know about Halloween. And finally, Worldpopulationreview had a list of red and blue states.

Our featured image is from Pixabay.