Let Them Eat Chocolate - Lower Fuel Prices And The Connection to Chocolate

Editor's Note: Just imagine how our economy will soar when American motorists can use domestic and sustainable $1.25 a gallon Ethanol instead of expensive petroleum based fuels.
See Also: Domestic Ethanol Is the Answer to Our Nation's Addiction to Foreign Oil

​NEW YORK October 31, 2014; NACS Online reported that U.S. chocolate demand may get an extra boost from an unlikely source this Halloween: the U.S. shale revolution, says Reuters.

With an abundance of crude oil due to the country's fracking boom pushing average U.S. retail gasoline prices to their lowest in four years, consumers have spare change to buy sweets at gas station stores, according to Hershey President and CEO John Bilbrey.

"You could say that we benefit because people aren't spending as much at the pump and they're going inside," Bilbrey said in a conference call with investors to discuss quarterly earnings, as reported by the news agency.

To be sure, consumers were still buying snacks on the road even when gas prices were much higher in recent years, but remains an additional sweet spot for candy makers following a better-than-expected demand ahead of Halloween, the biggest U.S. chocolate selling holiday.

Filling a tank up for less encourages consumers to spend more at convenience stores and boosts overall consumer sentiment, said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives.

And chocolate may benefit more than other products, because it's considered an “affordable luxury,” explained Lenard. NACS data shows that when customers buy gas, more than 20% also stop in the store to purchase snacks, the second-most commonly bought product after drinks.