Candy- recession proof!

ou812 · Post by **ou812** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:22 am

There was a brief story on personal indulgences during recessions during the Today show. They said that Americans spend 27.5 billion dollars on candy a year. Wow, and we wonder why we have such widespread obesity. Is it any surprise?

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:37 pm

that is quite a bit of $$$$$$

Blueskighs

anovelgirl · Post by **anovelgirl** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:58 pm

I'm not shocked at all, really. I mean, look at the holidays - Halloween, Easter - they aren't holidays where people indulge in homemade treats - they're bags and baskets full of candies.

Add in all of the vending machines, located on every corner, every five feet on a school campus; the checkout lines in stores - heck, even department stores sell candy now.

I'll never forget one year at Easter when I was a teenager. A friend of my mom's filled a HUGE basket - literally, like a straw laundry basket size - with Cadbury eggs and all kinds of chocolate, and then gave it to my brother and I for the holiday. I looked at all of that candy and thought we'd won the lottery or something...but I remember my brother being like, "That much candy could kill someone!" I don't recall how long it took us to polish it off, but I know it wasn't long. We were allowed to graze as we wanted to.

Completely senseless. I think back and can't believe we ate that much candy.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:10 pm

Cosmetic industries don't suffer much from bad financial times, either. A woman might not be able to afford new shoes or a new dress, but she'll buy a new lipstick.

Lipstick -- and candy -- are affordable indulgences even when times are tight.

sbay301 · Post by **sbay301** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:30 pm

A whole big straw basket of Cadbury eggs. Yummy! I do believe that chocolate is the food of the gods and no food reduction program will ever change my mind.

Yes, yes now I need to save it for S-days and I'm ok with that, but I do confess that it's one of my great loves.

Post by **reinhard** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:42 pm

Here's some perspective on candy consumption (in the US at least):

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FoodConsum ... sweets.xls

During the period for which they have data (1966-2006) per capita consumption ("domestic disappearance") rose a bit over 20%. That's a lot, but not too disproportionate compared with other food sources (caloric sweeteners as a whole are up 23% per capita during this period).

There were also some significant fluctuations from year to year (most notably a big dip in the early 1970s). Not sure what to make of this.

All kinds of other fascinating consumption data here:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FoodConsum ... sheets.htm

It's all in excel and in a TINY font. I have to zoom a lot just to be able to decipher it.

Reinhard