Butter rum Life Savers are the most popular Halloween candy in Delaware; wait, what?
Jessica Bies
Life Savers — more specifically, Butter Rum Life Savers — are the most popular Halloween candy in Delaware, according to one distributor, with nearly 21,000 pounds of the hard candies sold here in the months leading up to All Hallows' Eve.
Even Clair Robins, a content strategist for CandyStore.com, found the results surprising. After all, Lifesavers don't exactly scream Halloween.
She couldn't tell The News Journal who in Delaware is ordering so many Lifesavers but said the company compiles the data for its rankings from several different distributors.
Life Savers have been the top Halloween candy in the First State for three years now, the numbers show, though Robins conceded that someone may be buying them in huge amounts and skewing the data.
"I would say that smaller states are more susceptible to large orders giving more weight to a given candy type," she said.
The second most popular Halloween candy in Delaware was candy corn, with 17,981 pounds sold. The third most popular was skittles, with 9,595 pounds.
Based on 11 years of sales data the top Halloween candies nationally are:
- Skittles
- M&M's
- Snickers
- Reese's Cups
- Starburst
- Candy Corn
- Hot Tamales
- Hershey's
- Tootsie Pops
- Jolly Ranchers
Scroll down to take our poll and let us know what your favorite Halloween candy is.
This year, the National Retail Federation is estimating that shoppers will spend $2.6 billion on Halloween candy. Curious about other states' favorites?
Hover over the map to see the three most popular candies in each one.
MORE FROM DELAWAREONLINE
Multiple residents displaced byfour-alarm fire at Fox Run Apartments in Bear
280-pound whale skull heads from southern Delaware to Wilmington area
Christiana Care hospital system defrauded taxpayers with 'kickback scheme,' suit says
Some facts about Halloween candy
- About 179 million Americans celebrate Halloween
- Nearly a quarter of all Halloween purchases are made online
- Among those who celebrate Halloween, 95 percent will purchase candy
- They'll spend an average $27
- In Oregon, full-sized candy bars are the norm of trick-or-treaters
- More than 50 percent of parents stash some of their Halloween candy to enjoy later in the year
Source: CandyStore.com
State-by-state data table
Take our poll
Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.