I went to Target to try to buy some halloween candy. I've been aware that Halloween is now the closest thing to Christmas as far as consumer spending is concerned (estimated to be close to $7 billion this year- in the middle of a recession), but that doesn't even begin to cover its takeover of every store in neighborhood. Acme has 3 separate candy displays, the entire front of any Rite Aid can only be described as spooktacular, and Target? Well, Target has 5 display aisles of candy on top of the regular candy aisles.
Why do they need so much space? Are there suddenly more kinds of candy? Is it all candy corn? Nope, it's mixing and matching of existing products, with the occasional exception like Reece's pumpkin-shaped (but thankfully not flavored) peanut butter cups, and bag sizes. Mars, the largest candy maker, has 8 different kinds of chocolates that might show up, 10 if you include multiple M&Ms varieties. I know from teaching this stuff that if you make a mixture of 4 of these, you have 210 different combinations. Sell them in bags of 50, 100, and 150 and you now have 630 possibilities. Add in the other candy companies and you could argue that they're actually exhibiting restraint.
Since I try to only buy halloween candy that I will eat myself, making leftovers a feature and not a bug, I have to rifle through the shelves to make sure I get the combinations that have good variety but not one weirdo thing that'll end up in the garbage. Hence, 15 minutes doing nothing but wandering in and out of those 5 aisles at Target to get the bags with optimal variety and minimal waste. I'll give you the rundown after the trick or treaters have been through.
Oh, and don't let me forget to remind everyone of the importance of not eating anything pumpkin flavored. Not that anyone even knows what pumpkin tastes like anyway.
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