I hand out candy in large amounts every Halloween. Really obscene amounts, by multiple handfuls, to the degree that children turn around and tell their parents "Wow! He let me grab as much as I could take!" This led me to wonder what kind of candy every child would choose when given the chance.
So, this year, I created three buckets (which I regularly refilled) and performed a study while handing out freakish amounts of candy.
In the buckets I placed candy under three categories:
1.) Chocolate candy with nuts
(Think: Snickers, Butterfinger, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Baby Ruth, Almond Joy, etc.)
2.) Chocolate candy without nuts
(Think: Milky Way, Kit-Kat Bars, Twix, Whoppers, Nestles Crunch, 100 Grand, etc.)
3.) Sugary candy without any chocolate or nuts
(Think: Pixie Stix, Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Pop Rocks, Tootsie Roll candies and pops, etc.)
OVERWHELMINGLY, by a mile, when children are given the choice to grab a handful of as much candy to their liking, they choose sugary candy without chocolate or nuts.
I make this posting because the results were surprising. Mothers and fathers who walked up to my door behind their children would yell "Grab me some candy with nuts!"--but the kid wanted sugary candy--time and time again. Always sugary candy. And, yet, if you shop at any store in the days before Halloween, the chocolatey/nutty candy is wiped out, but the sugary candy is in abundance.
What can we learn from this?
Children like cheap, nasty candy--and you're buying the wrong candy for them (but the right candy for yourself).
So stop giving children chocolate candy with/without nuts and just give them sugar cubes.
If I ever show up to your door on Halloween--after you're done macing me--please give me Twix, 100 Grand, and Kit-Kat bars. Please and thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment