Standing in line to pay at a grocery store, you're in an optimized selling environment, carefully fashioned by marketers and retailers. That's where the pushers put the "impulse buys:" gum, mints, chocolate bars, gummy bears, sodas, snack bars. They're the kinds of products that, when you walk into the store, you're not planning to buy. But stand in line for a few minutes and you feel that familiar twinge of want. Suddenly, you're heading out with a few sticks of spearmint gum and a Baby Ruth.
But over the past year, fewer people have been standing in line to pay at the grocery store—or anywhere, really. One recent survey found that 61 percent of consumers are doing more grocery shopping online now than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means fewer impulse buys. In fact, some of the weirdest casualties of the pandemic have been gum and breath mints. North American sales of gum fell 14 percent by volume last year, and mints by 15 percent, compared with 2019, according to the market research firm Euromonitor. "It's probably the most affected area in 2020," said Jared Koerten, a senior analyst at the firm, who observes the snacking industry.
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