Walgreens scores a viral candy TikTok hit with these peelable gummies

April 29, 2024

Walgreens scores a viral candy TikTok hit with these peelable gummies

It’s a bit of much-needed sweet news for the drugstore chain, which has had more sour press lately.

BY Sarah Bregel

Despite TikTok’s uncertain future, it’s still continuing to set social media trends, and the latest one is a mango gummy candy with a cultlike following from an unexpected source: Walgreens’ own store brand, Nice!, a maker of a variety of budget drinks and snacks.

The gummies sell for $1.99 per bag, and they have a certain, shall we say, a-peel. Yes, the gummies are peelable. And they’re so popular that Walgreens put a one-bag-per-customer limit on the product online (if you try to fill your cart with more, you’ll get a pop-up notification letting you know you’ve exceeded that limit).

While the reviews on Walgreens.com are mixed, Gen Z TikTok users are raving about the product.

One video from TikToker @Trinhdoesthings, which was posted earlier this year, shows the user picking up a pack of the candy at Walgreens and testing it out.  “This is so fun,” she declares as she eats the candy, wrapper and all. The video has nearly nine million views as of writing.

In another popular video, user @AngelinaKHang tries the gummy candy for the first time, explaining that the reason the candy is so popular right now is because of its fascinating peelable quality. “It literally tastes like a ripe mango,” she says.

Marty Esarte, vice president of Walgreens-owned brands, said per CNN that the candy took off all on its own and not due to any paid promotion by Walgreens.

“The interactivity of it is really cool and it’s what makes the peelable candy really fun,” Esarte explained. “It also creates a discussion point: Is the outer layer better than the inner gummy or are they better together or separate?”

Still, while the candy is interesting, Esarte didn’t expect the boom in sales. “Literally in about four to five days after we launched it, we sold through nearly all of the product,” he said. “If we had expected that to happen, we probably would have had more.”

It’s a bit of much-needed sweet news for the drugstore chain, which has had more sour press in recent years, as Walgreens has struggled with burned-out pharmacists who say they’re overworked and have too much on their plates. Last year, pharmacists and techs staged walkouts that impacted over 500 stores, and in 2019, 200 Walgreens stores closed across the U.S.

Walgreens scores a viral candy TikTok hit with these peelable gummies

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Bregel is a writer, editor, and single mom living in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s contributed to NYMag, The Washington Post, Vice, In Style, Slate, Parents, and others. 


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