Candy Craze: A Look at Sweets and Our Economy

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In summary, there is an increase in people eating sweets, but this is not due to the economy. There is an increase in people becoming obese, but this is not due to the economy.
  • #1
Evo
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I've noticed recently that candy has become a real craze with all kinds of large candy stores cropping up.

Does candy become more popular when the econmomy gets bad? I notice shows on it on tv more and more, like right now "Extreme candy" is on Food tv.

Kurdt loves his sweets, candy, pastries, and ice cream. He's eating pie right now.

I, on the other hand do not have a sweet tooth, and truth be told, I may eat a candy bar twice a year. I haven't had ice cream in over a year, and even then, I ate half of a soft serve low fat frozen yogurt.

So, do you have a sweet tooth? Do you crave sweets more when things go bad, or as a reward, or, like Kurdt, you're thin as a twig and can eat all of the sweets you want all day long and never gain weight?
 
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  • #2
I find the older I get, the more I crave proteins. And veggies...lately I've been craving kale. Oh boy, I could go for some kale right now!

I almost never crave sweets. Even as a kid, I wasn't much into sweets.
 
  • #3
Can't say that I've really noticed an increase in people eating sweets, but then again I have been a bit secluded from the outside world in a few ways. One being not watching a bit of television.

I've always had a sweet tooth, but recently it's definitely tapered off quite a bit. I used to love eating ice cream sandwiches, chocolate popsicles, and just straight ice cream. After eating very healthily over the past few years, I just haven't craved sweets like I used to. They offered ice cream sandwiches at the base galley the other day so I decided to grab one for dessert. It seemed as though it was almost too much sugar for me and ended up only eating about 2/3rds of it. Not sure if it's just me getting older or due to my diet, but I definitely don't pig out on sugar anymore. Now, a snickers is a sugar overload!
 
  • #4
I don't really eat that much candy. I used to drink a lot of pop but I stopped doing that about a year ago... just drink water mostly now. I can't say that the economy going bad has really effected me on a personal level that I care about... so I guess I can't answer your question fully :p
 
  • #5
I've also always had the metabolism of a hummingbird and could eat however much of anything I want and never gain an ounce. My friends used to joke around and tell me that if I didn't eat every two hours, i'd die from starvation.
 
  • #6
Ugh, I'm watching another candy show, one tiny apple covered in a pound of candy, you can't even lift the thing with a stick, and you have to cut into it with a knife and fork. :yuck:

Ok, the ones rolled in live maggots is much worse.
 
  • #7
I haven't noticed any such trend. I actually miss the candy stores we used to have when I was a kid...especially around Christmas when we could buy bulk candy to make gingerbread houses. I like candy stores better than buying candy in grocery stores, because you can buy just a couple pieces and don't have to buy a whole package. But, that's probably why a lot of them closed...people didn't really buy as much as they hoped. Of course, I really prefer chocolate shops over candy stores, but a lot of them closed when the economy got bad.
 
  • #8
I rarely eat sweets, I'm always eating potato chips. I only crave sweets when I am working behind the computer the whole day and need something to chew on. Last week I bought a bag full of chocolate, sweets and potato chips just to get myself through the day.

Last summer we did eat a lot of chocolate ice cream and since we don't have a freezer we had to finish it all in one go: half a liter each. We used to do that several times a week around 10 pm just before the stores closed :smile: I only gained a kilo in weight, I can basically eat all I want. I've decided that I'm going to stay clear of chocolate ice cream for a while though :rolleyes:
 
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  • #9
Sugar and fat are more of a problem for children who can't make wise choices and for chocolate junkies like me.

Roughly 17 percent of school-age children are obese, triple the rate in 1980 rate and "an epidemic in the United States," says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and other chronic illnesses.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52U88G20090331
 
  • #10
I noticed how some kids turn into 'instant ar****les' when fed sugar, and wondered if it had anything to do with the similar transformation of some adults who drink alcohol. It made me wonder whether sugar craving and a physical propensity for alcoholism share common cause.
 
  • #11
I think I ODed on chocolate today :yuck:
 
  • #12
I have a hypothesis. Ever heard the old adage "sex sells"? With the increasing problems of obesity and diabetes, sugar has become more and more taboo. You can even see examples of sugar being promoted as "sinful" or "indulgent". It's the forbidden fruit phenomenon. Labeling something as taboo increases it's psychological appeal.
 
  • #13
Little companies have tried to open custom candy-shops in the county seat, to no avail. Their products are too expensive for the locals, and the "sucker season" is too short to let the tourists make up the difference.
 
  • #14
I guess it's the Food Tv that has all of these shows hyping the candy and sweets stores.
 
  • #15
Evo said:
I guess it's the Food Tv that has all of these shows hyping the candy and sweets stores.
I don't get those, so I don't know. I have some friends and loosely-related families that have tried to open sweet-shops, and they always die. I don't care how delectable your hand-dipped chocolates and double-rich fudges are...if your candies are much more expensive than commercially-packaged stuff, your store will crash.

This area has double-digit unemployment, and grinding poverty. Is there a market for candy stores that sell bon-bons for more than we might expect to pay for premium cuts of beef? Nope.
 
  • #16
turbo-1 said:
I don't get those, so I don't know. I have some friends and loosely-related families that have tried to open sweet-shops, and they always die. I don't care how delectable your hand-dipped chocolates and double-rich fudges are...if your candies are much more expensive than commercially-packaged stuff, your store will crash..
It just doesn't stop, another hour long show about candy and pastry shops. :yuck:
 
  • #18
Evo said:
It just doesn't stop, another hour long show about candy and pastry shops. :yuck:

Maybe they're running shows about candy because it's Halloween?
 
  • #19
I like candy, but I can live without it. I haven't had chocolate in so long I can't remember the last time I've had it. But I do like sweet stuff. I eat a lot of frozen fruit blended into an icy and now I'm hooked on these instant oatmeals. I don't know how they make them taste so good; the oatmeal I make never tastes that good.
 
  • #20
Moonbear said:
Maybe they're running shows about candy because it's Halloween?
Beginning of the holiday season, too. Probably November and December are the big months for home-made candies. I know they were in my family. Needhams, hand-dipped chocolates, fudge, turtles, peanut brittle...

I know it was expensive, but somehow my mother always managed to build a stockpile of home-made treats for the holidays AND keep us kids from eating them all so we'd have treats for guests.
 
  • #21
Autumn is most definitrely the season for candy, cookies and other baked goods. It's when people start staying indoors and turning their ovens on.
 
  • #22
No this goes on all year, I just noticed more shows on sweets this year, perhaps because I was home two months this summer after my surgery and watched more food tv. It was show after show about these candy shops, donut shops, muffins shops, all that made ridiculous creations.

I just wasn't aware that there was such a fad for these places.
 
  • #23
It is especially bad right now that it is treating time, however. Happy Halloween!
 
  • #24
Evo said:
No this goes on all year, I just noticed more shows on sweets this year, perhaps because I was home two months this summer after my surgery and watched more food tv. It was show after show about these candy shops, donut shops, muffins shops, all that made ridiculous creations.

I just wasn't aware that there was such a fad for these places.
It is also a factor of what TV networks are experimenting with. Notice the drop-off in Apprentice and Big Brother type shows, and the rise in retro sit-coms, for example.

Since the writer's strike, they've been hunting about to see what the next big thing is.
 
  • #25
SWEEEEEETS:!), I keep them everywhere “literally” just to ensure that I can have one whenever I want. but I’m worried that eating lots of them may affect my health, [STRIKE]I mean is there any organic sweets/candies that have no preservatives, food additives, colorings...etc, cause most of my candies [if not all] do have them :mad:[/STRIKE]

edit: better now! :grumpy:
 
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  • #26
drizzle said:
SWEEEEEETS:!), I keep them everywhere “literally” just to ensure that I can have one whenever I want. but I’m worried that eating lots of them may affect my health, I mean is there any organic sweets/candies that have no preservatives, food additives, colorings...etc, cause most of my candies [if not all] do have them :mad:

Yeah, it's the preservatives in candy that are affecting your health... :uhh:
 
  • #27
DaveC426913 said:
Yeah, it's the preservatives in candy that are affecting your health... :uhh:

Yeah, the sugar.
 
  • #28
There seemed to be quite a bit of pop-corn distribution this Halloween, which seems much healthier.
 
  • #29
I'm a fruits and vegetables fan.

I have a bag of sweets from Halloween but it's not getting eaten at all.
 
  • #30
JasonRox said:
I'm a fruits and vegetables fan.

I have a bag of sweets from Halloween but it's not getting eaten at all.

Best thing to do with all that Halloween candy: give it to coworkers (fellow students, in your case). That's what I do, and I figure two good things come of it: it makes my coworkers happy, and I get rid of it.

I spent a good part of today giving out candy. Anyone who came into my office got a Hershey bar :smile:.
 
  • #31
lisab said:
Best thing to do with all that Halloween candy: give it to coworkers (fellow students, in your case). That's what I do, and I figure two good things come of it: it makes my coworkers happy, and I get rid of it.

I spent a good part of today giving out candy. Anyone who came into my office got a Hershey bar :smile:.

Haha, yeah that's true. Or for guests when they come over. It's funny when I get guests and they want chips, and I'm like... I don't have any.

I eat poutine instead. :biggrin:
 
  • #32
JasonRox said:
Haha, yeah that's true. Or for guests when they come over. It's funny when I get guests and they want chips, and I'm like... I don't have any.

I eat poutine instead. :biggrin:

If you ever come to the Seattle area, let me know. All the Canadians here tell me there's only one place that has good poutine (it's actually in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula). I went there, read a description of what it is...it made my heart hurt, haha :smile:.
 
  • #33
I walked through an office lined with cubicles today - nearly everyone had a bowl, basket, or bag of candy displayed.
 
  • #34
WhoWee said:
I walked through an office lined with cubicles today - nearly everyone had a bowl, basket, or bag of candy displayed.

It is the week after Halloween, and people need to do something to get rid of all the leftover candy. I treated my students to candy in class Tuesday. I do keep a candy dish in my office, but am almost never the person eating from it. I usually am the first to know when someone starts or ends a diet, though, because I either see them less or more frequently as they appear in my office to raid the candy dish. Though, sometimes I don't even fill it myself either. The custodian will stop by and refill it with his own supply of chocolates if it starts to get low. And, of course, in return, he's always welcome to let himself in for a snack even if I'm not in my office (he works the evening shift).
 
  • #35
Evo said:
No this goes on all year, I just noticed more shows on sweets this year, perhaps because I was home two months this summer after my surgery and watched more food tv. It was show after show about these candy shops, donut shops, muffins shops, all that made ridiculous creations.

I just wasn't aware that there was such a fad for these places.

It could also be that you weren't able to eat much during that recovery so noticed all the shows about food and sweets even more than usual. :biggrin:
 
<h2>1. What is the impact of the candy industry on the economy?</h2><p>The candy industry has a significant impact on the economy, as it generates billions of dollars in revenue each year and creates job opportunities in various sectors such as manufacturing, marketing, and retail. Additionally, the production and sale of candy also contribute to the country's GDP.</p><h2>2. How does the price of candy affect consumer spending?</h2><p>The price of candy can have a direct impact on consumer spending. When the price of candy is low, consumers are more likely to purchase it, leading to an increase in overall spending. Conversely, when the price of candy is high, consumers may choose to spend their money on other items, resulting in a decrease in spending on candy and potentially affecting the candy industry's profits.</p><h2>3. What role does advertising play in the success of candy companies?</h2><p>Advertising plays a crucial role in the success of candy companies. Through strategic marketing and advertising campaigns, candy companies can increase brand awareness, attract new customers, and drive sales. Additionally, advertising can also influence consumer behavior and create demand for specific types of candy.</p><h2>4. How does the production of candy impact the environment?</h2><p>The production of candy can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. On the positive side, some candy companies have implemented sustainable practices in their production processes, such as using renewable energy sources and reducing packaging waste. However, the production of candy also requires resources like water and energy, and the disposal of packaging materials can contribute to pollution and waste.</p><h2>5. How has the trend towards healthier eating affected the candy industry?</h2><p>The trend towards healthier eating has had a significant impact on the candy industry. As more consumers become health-conscious, there has been a growing demand for healthier alternatives to traditional candy, such as low-sugar or organic options. This trend has forced candy companies to adapt and innovate, introducing new products that cater to the health-conscious market segment.</p>

1. What is the impact of the candy industry on the economy?

The candy industry has a significant impact on the economy, as it generates billions of dollars in revenue each year and creates job opportunities in various sectors such as manufacturing, marketing, and retail. Additionally, the production and sale of candy also contribute to the country's GDP.

2. How does the price of candy affect consumer spending?

The price of candy can have a direct impact on consumer spending. When the price of candy is low, consumers are more likely to purchase it, leading to an increase in overall spending. Conversely, when the price of candy is high, consumers may choose to spend their money on other items, resulting in a decrease in spending on candy and potentially affecting the candy industry's profits.

3. What role does advertising play in the success of candy companies?

Advertising plays a crucial role in the success of candy companies. Through strategic marketing and advertising campaigns, candy companies can increase brand awareness, attract new customers, and drive sales. Additionally, advertising can also influence consumer behavior and create demand for specific types of candy.

4. How does the production of candy impact the environment?

The production of candy can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. On the positive side, some candy companies have implemented sustainable practices in their production processes, such as using renewable energy sources and reducing packaging waste. However, the production of candy also requires resources like water and energy, and the disposal of packaging materials can contribute to pollution and waste.

5. How has the trend towards healthier eating affected the candy industry?

The trend towards healthier eating has had a significant impact on the candy industry. As more consumers become health-conscious, there has been a growing demand for healthier alternatives to traditional candy, such as low-sugar or organic options. This trend has forced candy companies to adapt and innovate, introducing new products that cater to the health-conscious market segment.

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