Retailers across the country are gearing-up for next week’s Halloween gauntlet. Falling on a Friday this year, trick-or-treaters and party goers are expected to sink $7.4 billion into the U.S. economy by night’s end. Up just over 7% from last year, the National Retail Federation is counting on Halloween to kick the holiday season off in style, giving retailers a taste of the Black Friday and Christmas sales just around the corner. But one of those brands is considering leaving a big financial treat behind this season by taking candy off its shelves.
In the wake of its recent PR success in banning cigarettes from its stores, CVS has announced that it is considering banning sugary food products like candy and soda as well. The versatile inventory of retailers like Kroger, CVS and Target are expected to win big this week, raking in 75% of the Halloween spending. The announcement stating that the brand is willing to leave those impactful sales on the table comes as a fairly controversial one.
Using the Crowdly platform, we looked under the hood of the CVS Facebook community to see if the move had the support of its brand advocates. The answer was overwhelmingly yes.
Of the community’s 3,500 biggest advocates, just under half of them were actively discussing Halloween. Other than “smoking” (the source of much media attention as of late), the most heavily influential words used were, “candy” and “alcohol,” two items customers view as equally harmful for a health store to carry. The mere mention of those products drove the most engagement and conversation from other community members, with the bulk of that chatter in support of banning them along with other unhealthy items such as soda.
It would seem that the recent move from the pharmacy to ban cigarettes was about more than just a PR halo. Last week CVS announced that it plans to charge customers a $15 co-pay for any prescriptions filled at a pharmacy that sells cigarettes or other tobacco products. The move adds incentive for customers that share the brand’s values to shop exclusively with CVS. The announcement translated to a tipped cap from Wall Street, as their stock rose 0.9% after the big reveal.
Could the pharmacy have more tricks up its sleeve by pulling candy off their shelves? Let us know what you think in the comments.