The Spice of the Season

Chunky knits, tall boots, leather jackets, dark denim, pumpkin spice lattes...one of these things is not like the other. Or is it? These days, pumpkin flavored anything goes hand-in-hand with everything ever considered fabulous about fall...a season typically associated with cooler temps and fashion-inspired moments like back-to-school, thick September magazine issues and Fashion Week. Seasonal and limited time offering products are innovative ways to spice up beloved staples, but it is almost universally agreed upon that nothing has ever taken on a life of its own quite like the pumpkin craze. The product that sparked the mayhem—Starbucks’ most popular seasonal flavor of all time, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, of course—was introduced 12 years ago. Today, it is actually hard to find anything that does not come in pumpkin flavor (dog food included, according to The Washington Post). According to the same Post article, sales of pumpkin-flavored products are up 80% from 2011, and account for more than $360 million in sales for the year ended July 2015. With stats like that, it is no wonder that seemingly every food manufacturer under the sun is pushing to release pumpkin-inspired products, like belVita’s new Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Biscuits, Yoplait Light Pumpkin Pie Yogurt, Bailey’s Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer, Kellogg’s Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini Wheats and G.H. Cretors Pumpkin Spice Caramel Corn--just five of the hundreds of seasonal items being sold this year, and that number is only going up. Another article in the Post cites the increase in branded pumpkin beer varieties over the past 14 years—from two in 2000, to more than 65 as of 2014. How does this impact grocery stores? There is certainly enough merchandise available to devote an entire aisle to pumpkin-flavored products. Is that the next step—something consumers are looking for? During a recent visit to a Trader Joe’s on Long Island I found myself overwhelmed at the store’s entrance by a towering pumpkin-everything display pushing Pumpkin Joe’s O’s, pumpkin bread mix, pancake mix and more. I personally felt it was a little much, but the display was definitely garnering significant store traffic. Just something to think about…