JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
For people stocking up on candy this Halloween, it is a spooky season in the grocery store. We're talking about the price for all those chocolates and gummy bears 'cause they keep going up. Here to talk about what is going on in the candy aisle are NPR's retail correspondent Alina Selyukh and Joe Hernandez, who covers food and affordability. I am already hungry. Hi to both of you.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Hello, hello.
JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: Hey there.
SUMMERS: All right, y'all, what is happening with these candy prices?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, so glad to be here - unfortunately, just to rain on the Halloween parade a little bit. But candy prices are going up for a bunch of reasons. The cost of sugar has been high, but mainly it's a story about expensive chocolate. So cocoa harvests have been really hurt by drought and heavy rains in places like West Africa, where most cocoa grows. David Branch, who tracks the cocoa market for the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, says things are actually improving, but it's too late for this Halloween because the cocoa for this chocolate was bought six to 12 months ago when prices were much higher.
DAVID BRANCH: The current price of cocoa is typically not reflected until next year's production for Halloween. The candy on the shelves right now, chocolate candy, that cocoa was purchased in 2025.
SELYUKH: Actually, just this morning, executives at Hershey had a call with investors, and they were saying cocoa prices are improving. They're on their way. But right as that's happening, there's now a new cost that they did not see coming for this year, which is a price of gas and diesel. Those prices are high because of the war in Iran, and they're making it much more expensive to ship stuff, both the supplies from abroad, but also the actual candy across the country on trucks.
HERNANDEZ: So overall, the cost of candy and gum is up 7.7% compared to a year ago. That's according to the latest federal data. And prices are up over 18% from two years ago.
SUMMERS: OK, got it. So how are people dealing with these higher costs? And I'm talking here about both shoppers and the makers.
HERNANDEZ: So the shoppers are buying less chocolate. We have data from this firm called Circana, which tracks sales in supermarkets across the country. And they're seeing pretty clearly that people are buying less chocolate candy every year for several years running, but at the same time, in dollars, the sales have been up, which means people are spending more but getting less chocolate candy.
SELYUKH: There's a bit of a flavor shift, actually, even in Halloween baskets. We're seeing more gummy candy, more sour candy. You have brands like KitKat and Reese's launching candy that's, like, coated in white cream instead of cocoa, calling it ghosts or witch's brew. So, like, it's green-colored marshmallow coating, not using the pricey cocoa.
HERNANDEZ: And those producers are watching all kinds of other costs, too, so possible new weather disruptions from El Niño. And they're also still dealing with the trickle down of President Trump's tariffs, which are affecting things like candy wrappers and packaging, for example. I talked to Enna Grazier. She owns a small-batch chocolate company in New Hampshire. She gets a lot of her supplies from Canada.
ENNA GRAZIER: A lot of the holiday packaging and some of the ingredients I needed for this holiday have a 50% tariff.
HERNANDEZ: And she says she's had to look elsewhere for some of that packaging, and because of all those costs put together, she's had to raise prices on some of her sweets over the past year and a half.
SUMMERS: So I mean, how does all of this bode for sales this season? I love Halloween, and I hesitate to ask, but is this going to be a bummer of a Halloween?
SELYUKH: So for shoppers maybe a little bit, for retailers maybe not so much - the National Retail Federation estimates that shoppers per person will spend about $115 this Halloween, which is virtually the same as last year, and that's for candy, decorations, costumes. Don't forget costumes for dogs, which is a big thing in America.
SUMMERS: (Laughter) Oh, yeah.
SELYUKH: Pumpkins and hot dogs are the top sellers this year. So the retailers are expecting another record Halloween with a total of $13.5 billion in sales. But the reason it's a little bit of a bummer for shoppers is that, like Joe was saying, people are spending a bit more to buy a bit less.
SUMMERS: OK. And just zooming out before we let y'all go, what does this say, big picture, about prices and how consumers are feeling right now?
SELYUKH: Well, prices are high, and consumers feel down, but they keep spending. Today, we got the latest data on GDP, which is a broad measure of economic activity, and it showed the economy growing at an annual rate of 3.4% July through September. And that's really strong. People's wages are not keeping up with inflation, but people are employed. They are cutting back on some stuff like travel by plane because the gas prices are making it so expensive, but they're still celebrating. People are still buying 12-foot animatronic skeletons at Home Depot. And those are, like, $300. So all of this has retailers fairly optimistic for the holiday season overall.
SUMMERS: I have to say, owning one of those massive skeletons is kind of my dream. That is NPR's Alina Selyukh and Joe Hernandez. Thanks to both of you.
SELYUKH: Thank you.
HERNANDEZ: You got it.
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