Pat’s Goes on an M&M Rant

Written by Pat's Papers | Wednesday, 28 September 2011 7:23 AM

Foolishly, I visited the M&M store to buy M&Ms last night.

I had a very specific M&M need: My daughter Lucy was doing a school project that required a large quantity of green candy. We’d been past the M&M store and knew it featured a section where you could create your own color mix. So I took one of the plastic bags they supply and filled it about half full. Impressed with my blend of three colors of green M&Ms, I headed toward the cashier. She weighed the bag and said, calmly: “That’s 44.91. Cash or credit?”

How foolish was the trip? Well, it turns out the little milk chocolate candies are between four and five times the price you’d pay if you bought a big bag at a discount store. (At Kmart: A 2-pound, 13-ounce bag? $8.99.)

Stunned, I said, “I’m not paying 44 dollars for that.” She explain that there was no mistake—I had a little over three pounds of candy and the price was $12.99 a pound. I explained that I had no dispute over the accuracy of the scale, rather, I said, it was the price that I couldn’t believe.

Clearly, there was no point negotiating at the cash register. So we agreed that the clerk would reclaim enough of the M&Ms that we’d cut the cost of the school project down to about $30.

I had no expectation that M&Ms in Times Square were going to be as affordable as buying a three-pound bag at Costco. But I was thinking maybe double the price would be an appropriate number, not four or five times as much. And come on—as expensive as their real estate is, it’s a factory store, and you’d expect that they’d set prices in a way that would build your connection to the brand. Instead, I got the kind of price I expect to pay at a movie theater, and we all know that movie theaters are the masters of candy price gouging.

I guess there’s so much tourist traffic in Times Square that there’s always somebody new to stop by and overpay for M&Ms. For their sake, I hope so. Because if they’re looking for repeat business, they won’t get it from me.