October 24th, 2018

Well dang, I've made the classic Halloween mistake. Again.  But I'm not alone.  I'm reasonably certain that the only people who have never done this, are the people who leave their porch light off on Halloween night and opt out entirely.

I speak of course of buying Halloween candy too early.

The problem is, the stores have the candy on sale too early.  Sale!  Is there any sign in a grocery store more appealing?  On Sale!  Buy One Get One!  Woohoo!  To take advantage of the sale, we have to buy early.  They are always a "limited time offer".    In my case it was a BOGO sale. Awesome!  I knew it was too early but was certain that I could control myself.  That I would be disciplined enough to just leave those bags safely in the pantry, untouched, until Halloween night.  I have no idea why I thought that would be true.  It never was before.

Actually I am not the one who broke into the candy bags early.........this year.  Nopem this time it was Tim!  And once the bags are open, they are fair game. Apparently this is the rule.

Fortunately this happens to be extremely small candy.   Not 'Snack Sized', not 'Fun Sized, but 'Bite Sized'.  Yes each goody is a single, individually wrapped bite of Milky Way or Snickers or whatever else is in there. One Single Bite.  Which allows us to eat multiple candies with impunity right?  How many bites do you suppose there are in a regular sized Milky Way?

Actually, I can make that one bite last if I put my mind to it.  I can just nibble away at it like a tiny mousie.  Or put the entire thing in my mouth and let it slowly melt.  It is very satisfying. But it doesn't keep me from doing it again.  And possibly again.  Sigh.  It's very sad.

I think this is a clever merchandising ploy and I tip my hat to the brilliance of it all.

The stores put Halloween candy on BOGO sale early and like the fool I am, I buy it, confident that this year will be different.  "This year", I delude myself, "This year,  I will not eat any of it before Halloween."  But of course I do and then suddenly it's the day before Halloween and I don't have enough goodies to hand out. Mercy! How did that happen?  So I rush out to buy full-priced candy for the actual night that I need it.   So they sell more candy ultimately. Clever, Very Very  Clever.

And knowing this will probably not stop me from making the exact same mistake again next year.  But I'm getting smarter.  Now I'm just  calling it part of the Halloween Tradition! Which somehow, makes it okay.