Soaring Inflation Pushes Halloween Candy Prices Scary High

Customers say they have been experiencing sticker shock in the candy aisle this month as they reckon with an unfamiliar question: Do they overspend on sweets or leave empty-handed, forgoing the Halloween fun?

Keegan Kipke,

19 years old, faced that dilemma earlier this month at a gas station in Ionia, Mich., more than 100 miles northwest of Detroit.

He said he had stopped in the gas station’s convenience store to buy some provisions for a road trip. He was eyeing a bag of family-size Swedish Fish, one of his favorite candies.

Then he saw the price tag: $10.99.

“I was like, ‘No way was this bag of candy so expensive,’” said Mr. Kipke, a sophomore at the University of Michigan. He said he thought $6 seemed fair for a bag that size.

Mr. Kipke left the store without buying anything. “It’s just not worth it,” he said.

Halloween shoppers should expect more tricks and fewer treats this year. The average household is expected to spend about $100 on candy, costumes, decorations and related items for this year’s holiday, according to data from the National Retail Federation, a retail trade group. That amount is the second highest the group has ever predicted, trailing only last year’s record of $103. By comparison, people spent around $74 for Halloween in 2015.

U.S. candy makers said inflation rates have driven up production costs and the price of ingredients like sugar, flour and milk. The cost of each of those items has outpaced the overall U.S. consumer inflation rate, which increased 8.2% in September from a year ago and hovered near a four-decade high, according to the Labor Department. 

Still, some of the country’s largest candy makers said they tried to keep treats affordable this Halloween.

Hershey Co.

, said last week that it hadn’t raised the prices of some of its candy since June. Besides its namesake chocolate bar, the Pennsylvania-based company also manufactures Kit Kat, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and other products.

Rising candy prices have even drawn the attention of some politicians. Sen.

Bernie Sanders

(I., Vt.) last week tweeted about the rising cost of candy and compared it to the rising wealth of the Mars family, which he said increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many wealthy Americans got even richer in 2020 and 2021 largely because of soaring stock prices.

Mars Inc., which manufactures candies including M&M’s, Skittles and Starburst, said last week that it absorbed extra candy costs wherever possible, recognizing that this was a tough year for consumers. A spokeswoman for Mars Wrigley, the company’s snacking product arm, declined to comment on Mr. Sanders’s remarks about the Mars family’s wealth.

Still, Datasembly, which tracks product data, said Mars’s Starburst and Skittles have had the biggest price increases—35% and 42%, respectively, since last year—compared with 10 other popular Halloween candies.

The Mars Wrigley spokeswoman said after this story published Tuesday that the company’s price increases were “in line with the category increases cited by the Labor Department and significantly lower than the 30%-50% range referenced in some reports.”

Datasembly reported that Crunch and Butterfinger bars saw the lowest price increases of 6% and 7% respectively.

Overall, Datasembly found that the candy sector had some of the biggest price jumps of any grocery category in recent months.

Other candy makers, including Ferrero,

Tootsie Roll Industries

and

Mondelez International Inc.,

didn’t return requests for comment.

On

Amazon.com Inc.,

the price of a family-size bag of Sour Patch Kids jumped to $16.99 this month from $12 in October last year, according to Keepa, which tracks Amazon prices.

A bag of fun-size Snickers bars on Amazon this month sold for more than $12, according to Keepa, up from almost $5 in October last year.

Those prices have left consumers like Mr. Kipke in Michigan reeling.

“The price is too off-putting,” he said.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at alyssa.lukpat@wsj.com