In a nation where 25 percent to 35 percent of the population is on a diet, you might think that selling chips and candy is not the way to win the modern consumer’s heart. Whether the diet is Paleo, Keto, low-carb, low fat, vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian — we could go on an and on — the point is that Americans are a bit obsessed with watching what we eat.
And even for those not explicitly concerned with their waistlines, there is still an unending enthusiasm (born out in sales figures) among consumers for organic, local and “clean” food of all kinds.
So Americans are either on a diet, or craving cleaner food — whatever will the purveyors of junk food do to go on?
Probably exactly what they are doing now, since for all the enthusiasm about eating well, we are still pretty into eating badly. In fact, we are so into our sweet and salty snacks that Amazon considers them crucial to its forward assault on grocery sales.
Because, as it turns out, the latter-day grocery enthusiasts at Amazon are selling an awful lot of chips, chocolate and candy on their site each year. The first half of this year alone has been particularly lucrative on the junk food sales trail — Amazon saw sweets and snacks up 42 percent to $215 million from January to August, according to the researchers at One Click Retail.
Last year, Amazon posted total sales of $240 million in those categories.
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
