What was your favorite candy as a kid? I was always a sucker for a Snickers bar, but I also loved Sour Patch Kids. We rarely got to eat candy growing up, so Halloween was the ultimate jackpot.
My brother was a little more difficult than I was when it came to candy, and he always preferred Reese's candy. And since he wouldn't eat anything else, my parents would make me trade my Reese's to my brother and I'd take the stuff he didn't like.
I have to admit, it made me pretty frustrated. Why was it my fault that he didn't like other candy? If only we had been born decades later, then maybe this wouldn't have been an issue...
You see, Reese's has a new machine for Halloween this year, and it sounds like my brother's dream.
The iconic candy brand announced their new "Candy Converter" machine, which will accept your 'bad" candy and spit out Reese's products.
"Disappointment goes in, Reese's Cups come out," their video explains. It also claims that 90% of Americans wish they could trade their Halloween candy, so it sounds like it's about time someone came up with a way to swap it all.
"As the #1 Halloween candy (with over half of candy buyers purchasing Reese's), Reese's has come up with a solution -- give us your unwanted candy, and we'll give you what you actually want -- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups," Anna Lingeris, a spokesperson for the parent company Hershey, said.
The company also found that "four out of five Americans either have traded or would like to trade candy they didn't like for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup."
One thing that remains unclear is what the conversion rate for this machine is. If you put in four Jolly Ranchers, do you get two Reese's Cups back? Does it go by weight? By quality of the candy? If that's the case, you'd need to insert one trillion pieces of candy corn to receive one Reese's Pieces candy.
If you are looking to convert your candy, there is a little bit of bad news. This machine will only be available for five hours, and only in New York City outside Washington Square Park on 5th Avenue. There will also be a 10,000 cup limit for the machine, so if you get there towards the end of the five hours, you may be out of luck.
Even though the machine currently is only in New York, Lingeris says that may change.
"This has been quite the day and we love the feedback from our fans," she said. "Maybe we will bring the Reese's Candy Exchange to other cities; stay tuned for Halloween 2019."