15 December, 2011

Candy Corn M&Ms

Candy Corn M&Ms were an M&Ms "special edition" - a Walmart exclusive made up of white chocolate with white, yellow, and orange candy shells.   This isn't really a post about them, though. Call it an "anti-post," I guess, because I was never able to find the damn things during the Halloween season when they were supposed to be on the shelf.

I visited every Walmart in the area through the Halloween season and beyond,  but they were never in stock, so even though I'd love to tell you how awesome they were, it ain't gonna happen.

Now, I know that Walmart has enormous clout with manufacturers and distributors because of the huge share of the market they command, but I still hate this kind of "limited distribution" because it inevitably leaves other chunks of the market out.  I suppose I could have sent an email to Mars to request some samples, but it's not my policy to request stuff from manufacturers (though they are free to send me products unsolicited and at their own risk for review, I don't like putting my hand out.)

So I guess that's it: I don't like retailer-specific special edition items and now you know about it; rant over, the end.

1 comment:

cybele said...

I've found that the retailer specific special edition items are kind of like test marketed items. If they go well, most companies will do a wide release the following season. This happened with CVS' exclusivity on the 1 pound Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from two years ago, and the Candy Corn Kisses that Target had for Halloween about three years ago.

I think they're going to come back next year.