New Jersey continues to be proud of the most famous candy in the world, m&m’s! Here in the United States, m&m’s maintained a whopping 79% of the candy market share according to new research results on sales from the 3rd quarter of 2022 according to research company Statista. m&m’s continues to strengthen its marketing hold with new and evergreen marketing. New marketing includes the m&m theme parks called m&m World

M& M’s was invented in 1941 right here in New Jersey by Forrest E. Mars. They were the original plain hard chocolate-covered candies and the success of the brand was swift. The fact that they never melt in your hand made them a great candy for our soldiers fighting in World War 2, they wouldn’t melt in their pockets or backpacks and the Army commissioned thousands and thousands of m&m’s for the troops.

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M& M’s became so popular by 1950 that many imitators were starting to creep up, so M& M’s, to stay true to the brand, stamped every piece of candy with the letter m and used the slogan ”look for them on every piece” was created and used in the marketing of M& M’s. In 1954 chocolate-covered peanut candies were introduced and they changed the color of the m on every piece from black to white.

In the 80’s m&m’s enjoyed success as being the first candy in outer space, it was also the first candy to be the official candy of the 1984 Olympics. Colors, peanuts, and peanut butter all became part of the m&m brand, and all continue to sell at astronomic numbers. Their growth continued into the 1990s and the 2000s with many marketing schemes that were successful in keeping the m&m brand alive and well.

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In 2018 M& M’s had sales of over 667 million dollars. Hershey’s chocolate bar and all of Hershey’s products had sales of over $440 million combined. One candy, M& M’s, was outselling all of Hershey’s. Today Mars Incorporated produces 400 million individual M& M candies every day. That's a lot of chocolate!

Candy Maker Mars To Raise Price Of M&M's And Other Chocolate Candies
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In 2018, M&M’s had sales of over 667 million dollars. Hersey’s chocolate bar and all of Hersey’s products had sales of over 440 million combined. One candy, M&M’s, was outselling all of Hersey’s. So, this year for your trick-or-treaters reach for a pack of M&M’s proudly made right here in the great state of New Jersey.

One of the Top 50 Candy stores in the US is right here in Jersey

Black River Candy Shoppe in Chester New Jersey was selected in Food Network Magazine's “America’s 50 Best Candy Stores” a couple of years back and the story went viral online earlier this year.

I decided to take a trip down there for myself to see what they had to offer. Right, when you walk in you feel like you are Charlie about to take over the chocolate factory. Black River Candy Shoppe is a cute little candy shop offering hundreds of different types of candy.

They have old-school childhood candy as well as an incredible selection of newer candy varieties. Candy is displayed in old whiskey barrels, and a lot of their candy is sold in bulk by the pound. It is located in downtown Chester right off of Main Street. Check out the photos from my recent visit:

Gallery Credit: Jordan Jansson

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Gallery Credit: Charlotte Barnett

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.