Just by the nature of the beast, one of the most difficult challenges of selling seasonal candy derives from dealing with the compression of the shopping cycle. The winter holidays offer a perfect example. For the past three years, early December sales have not been stellar. The retail rush then gets pushed to the last 10 to seven days before Christmas. With shoppers in stores for less time, the impact on seasonal impulse buys becomes obvious. Additionally, planned seasonal purchases have taken a hit thanks to con-sumer insecurity. That being said, analyses conducted by the National Confectioners Association (NCA) suggest that, after several mostly down years in seasonal candy, the numbers from 2004 provide some rea- sons for optimism. For example, Valentine's candy sales faced tough competition in 2004 with the holiday falling on a weekend. Candy found itself matched against dining out and other weekend outings. For Easter, despite dollar sales being down in all channels except drug stores, unit sales were up across all categories. This suggests that Easter sales performance was stronger than the dollar sales numbers indicate.
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