To revive stale US sales, candy companies pitch gum as a stress reliever and concentration aid

Candy companies want to know: What will make Americans start chewing gum again?

Gum’s bubble burst during the COVID-19 pandemic, when masks and social distancing made bad breath less of a worry and fewer people spent on impulse buys. The number of packages of gum sold dropped by nearly a third in the United States in 2020, according to Circana, a market research firm.

Consumer demand has picked up only slightly since then. Last year, U.S. chewing gum sales rose less than 1% to 1.2 billion units, which was still 32% fewer than in 2018. Although sales in dollars are back to pre-pandemic levels, that’s mostly due to inflation; the average pack of gum cost $2.71 last year, $1.01 more than it did in 2018, Circana said.

It's a similar story globally. Worldwide gum sales rose 5% last year to more than $16 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor. That still was 10% below the 2018 sales figure.