Halloween means candy and costumes and Instacart's latest data shows what people in New Jersey and across the country put in their carts throughout October.
Key Takeaways
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1 / 6Reese's Peanut Butter Cups took the No. 1 spot by ounces of candy sold. The top five were all chocolate: Peanut M&M's came in second, Hershey's Milk Chocolate third, M&M's fourth, and Snickers fifth. Sour Patch Kids was the first non-chocolate candy on the list, coming in at No. 7.
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2 / 6State by state, the pattern holds. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the top seller in 40 of them. Peanut M&M's lead across much of the Plains and Mountain West and in Hawai'i. Then there's Rhode Island, the lone sour candy holdout in a sea of chocolate, where Sour Patch Kids took the top spot. Rhode Island is the only state where Sour Patch Kids ranked ahead of both Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut M&M's.
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3 / 6The most popular candy in each state tells one story. The candy each state buys at a much higher rate than the rest of the country reveals another.
New Jersey bought Swedish Fish most as a share of items sold compared to the national average.
Montana is buying HI-CHEW at +616% above the national average, the largest over-index among candies in the country. Louisiana buys Tootsie Pops at +141% above the national share. Rhode Island also stands out for Sour Patch Kids, buying them +109% above the national share. Colorado and Wyoming show a strong preference for candy corn, with the candy ranking among their most over-indexed purchases.
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4 / 6Set aside any single candy and look at the full candy aisle: Which states devote the biggest slice of their overall cart to candy in October? The answer runs west, decisively.
Utah (+67% above the national average), Idaho (+50%), Alaska (+47%), Washington (+43%) and Montana (+40%) buy candy the most often in the country. The Northeast leads in the other direction: Delaware (-18%), Pennsylvania (-16%) and New York (-15%) are the most restrained. Nobody has a sweet tooth quite like the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. They lead the country in candy purchases during October.
New Jersey ordered 11% less candy as a share of items sold compared to the national average, ranking as the #8 least among all states.
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5 / 6Zoom to the city level and the Pacific Northwest and Alaska show up once again. Anchorage, AK (+56% above the national average), Eugene, OR (+53%), Tacoma, WA (+51%), Vancouver, WA (+48%), and Spokane, WA (+47%) top the list. The bottom of the rankings is equally clustered: Newark, New York City, and a string of NY, NJ and PA cities all buying candy well below the national rate.
What's fascinating is how clean the split is. The top cities are almost all in the Pacific Northwest, while the bottom cities are almost all in the Northeast. Both regions are up north, both get a proper chill in October, and both have plenty of family-friendly neighborhoods. Bottom line: Depending on where you live, Halloween traditions might just look a little different.
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6 / 6When it comes to costumes, adults and kids tend to shop for classic and spooky options: Skeleton and Witch costumes lead the way for adults, while kids go for Ghostface masks from "Scream," with Witch and Skeleton close behind. The accessories aisle runs on hats, jewelry and gloves, because the right hat can make the full costume.
And then there are the food costumes.
Since Instacart is a grocery technology company, it was worth taking a look. Among adult food costumes, Banana took the top spot. Fitting, since bananas happen to be the No.1 selling item on Instacart.
So whether you're filling the candy bowl with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, dressing up to go trick-or-treating, or trying to make it through October without eating all the candy before Halloween, it turns out that where you live can say a lot about how you celebrate Halloween.