Best-Selling Candy Formats Retailers Should Stock

At Redstone Foods, we've spent a lot of time analyzing what makes a retail space profitable. When planning your store’s layout, it is easy to focus entirely on the flavors and brands you're selling. However, it's also a good idea to think about the packaging and candy formats your candy shop offers.

Consider the customer journey as a book. While your customers may be the heroes of the story, it's up to the products you sell to help guide them along the way. From the grab-and-go impulse of a candy bar to the experiential delight of bulk bins, each candy format speaks to a different customer mindset, belongs in a specific store location, and carries its own margin potential. Something as simple as the candy format can dictate impulse buys, encourage sharing, or even help you create destination displays throughout your store, or candy aisle.

In this guide, we’ll map out the five key wholesale candy formats, from theater boxes to peg bags, and show you exactly where they fit in your store’s narrative to drive higher margins and happier shoppers. We'll show you how the way a sweet treat is packaged can completely change how a customer interacts with it, where it should be displayed, and how much of a profit margin you can make.

Whether you operate a dedicated sweet shop, a convenience store, or a concession stand, offering the right mix of packaging styles will dramatically boost your store's bottom line. Let’s break down the best-selling candy formats and explore how to use them to your advantage.

1. The Classic Candy Bar: The King of Impulse Buys

The standard candy bar is the foundation of the confectionery industry. When people think of a quick, satisfying treat, they usually picture a classic wrapper.

• The Retail Advantage: Candy bar sales thrive on visibility. These are the ultimate impulse candy items. Because they are priced low and offer a single, satisfying serving, customers rarely plan to buy them, they simply see them and grab them.
• Best Placement: Always position your milk chocolate candy bars and standard candy bars directly below the checkout counter or at eye level in the checkout lane.
• The Strategy: Rotate your offerings regularly. Keep the absolute classics available at all times, but introduce new or limited-edition bars to catch the eye of your regular shoppers.

2. Peg Bags: The Vertical Space Saver

If you have blank wall space in your candy store, you need to fill it with peg bags! These are the medium-sized bags featuring a punched hole at the top, allowing them to hang from metal pegs on a gondola display or slatwall.

• The Retail Advantage: Peg bags are incredibly space-efficient. They allow you to display a massive variety of gummies, licorice, and hard candies in a very compact footprint. They also represent a "sharing size," which commands a slightly higher price point than a standard candy bar.
• Best Placement: Aisles with heavy foot traffic. A vibrant, fully stocked peg wall creates a visually striking block of color that draws customers in.
• The Strategy: Group your peg bags by brand or color to make the display pop. Keep the pegs fully loaded; a sparse display looks picked over and discourages browsing.

3. The Theater Box: Cinematic Value Anywhere

You don't need to run a movie theater to profit from the theater box format. These rectangular cardboard boxes are a staple in the candy industry and offer distinct advantages for retailers.

• The Retail Advantage: Theater boxes have an incredibly high perceived value. Customers associate them with fun experiences (like going to the movies), and the sturdy packaging makes them easy to stack on standard shelving. They are also highly recognizable from a distance.
• Best Placement: Endcaps, dedicated freestanding display shippers, or directly adjacent to your beverage coolers.
• The Strategy: Run "2 for $X" promotions with theater boxes. Because they stack so well, building a large, temporary display for a weekend promotion is fast and highly effective.

4. Bulk Candy: The Destination Experience

The debate of bulk candy vs packaged candy is common among store owners. While packaged goods are easy to manage, bulk displays create an interactive experience that customers absolutely love. It makes shopping fun again, and that's something which every retailer should take notice of!

• The Retail Advantage: Bulk candy sales offer some of the highest profit margins in the entire retail industry. Customers enjoy the physical act of scooping and mixing their favorite gummies, chocolates, and jawbreakers, which often leads them to buy more weight than they originally intended.
• Best Placement: Center store. A bulk display should be the focal point of your shop, drawing people inside with the visual appeal of clear acrylic bins filled with colorful treats.
• The Strategy: Maintain strict cleanliness. Bulk bins require daily wiping and restocking. A clean, brimming bulk section is a goldmine, while a messy or half-empty one will turn shoppers away.

5. Grab-and-Go Snack Packs & Novelty Items

Modern consumers are always moving, and their snacking habits reflect that busy lifestyle. This category covers everything from small, resealable snack packs, to toy-and-candy combinations.

• The Retail Advantage: Snack packs appeal to parents looking for portion control or adults needing a quick energy boost. Novelty items (like candy fans, light-up spinners, or Pez dispensers) offer a high markup because the customer is paying for the toy or the entertainment factor just as much as the candy itself.
• Best Placement: Clip strips hanging from other displays, or low shelves where children can easily reach the novelty items.
• The Strategy: Capitalize on trends. Novelty items often feature popular movie characters or viral internet trends. Cycle these products in and out quickly to keep your inventory feeling fresh and relevant.

Merchandising Matrix: Mixing Formats for Success

To give you a quick reference guide, here is how you can view your inventory mix at a glance:

Retail Pro-Tip: Never rely on just one format. A successful store uses a strategic mix. Use bulk candy to create an experience, peg bags to offer variety, and candy bars at the register to capture those final impulse dollars before the customer walks out the door.

FAQ: Maximizing Your Candy Formats

Q: Which is more profitable: bulk candy or packaged candy?

A: Bulk candy generally offers the highest profit margins per ounce because you control the pricing structure, and customers often scoop more than they initially planned. However, packaged options like peg bags and theater boxes require less labor, zero weighing, and no sanitation maintenance. The most profitable retail spaces offer a strategic mix of both to satisfy every type of shopper while balancing staff workload.

Q: Where is the absolute best place to put standard candy bars?

A: Standard candy bars are the ultimate impulse buy. Always place them directly below the checkout counter or right at eye level in the checkout lane. Shoppers rarely write "single candy bar" on their grocery list. If you hide them in the center aisles, you will miss out on those lucrative, last-minute decisions made right before they checkout at the cash register.

Q: How many peg bags should I display on my slatwall at once?

A: A full, vibrant candy display is your best salesperson. Aim to keep your hooks fully loaded with a colorful variety of top-selling gummies, licorice, and chocolates. If a peg wall looks sparse or picked over, customers might assume the stock is old and keep walking. Abundance signals freshness and drives sales.

Q: Are novelty candy items worth the shelf space?

A: Absolutely. Novelty items featuring toys, fans, or fun dispensers often carry a much higher markup because shoppers are paying for the entertainment factor just as much as the sugar. They are perfect for lower shelves where kids can easily spot them, making them a high-value addition to your grab-and-go section.

Maximize Your Margins with Redstone Foods

Understanding the psychology behind packaging is one of our favorite candy retail tips to share with our partners. By strategically placing different formats throughout your store, you guide the customer journey and maximize the value of every visit.

If you want to optimize your store's layout and increase your profit margins, it is time to buy candy wholesale from a partner who understands the business from the shelf up.

At Redstone Foods, we carry an expansive selection of every candy format imaginable, from the latest novelty crazes to classic glass-jar bulk favorites. Sign up for an account today and find out why Redstone Foods is America's favorite candy distributor!

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