(WANE) — With Halloween being just under three weeks away, chocolatiers and candy companies in Fort Wayne and the surrounding area are already seeing things get busier.

For Spangler Candy Company in Bryan, Ohio, Halloween represents the biggest holiday season for the company in terms of sales thanks to Spangler’s biggest product: Dum Dums lollipops.

Evan Brock, vice president of Marketing for Spangler Candy Company, said 20% of annual Dum Dums sales happen during the Halloween season, and the company produces around 500 million Dum Dums around Halloween alone in order to satisfy the demand.

“They’ve been a trick-or-treat favorite for a long time,” Brock said. “Everybody likes chocolate, but people like to have some variety of candy when they’re choosing the candy they hand out.”

DeBrand Fine Chocolates, a chocolatier based in Fort Wayne, also sees an increase in sales around Halloween.

Melissa Fuller, a member of the management team at DeBrand’s Auburn Park Drive location, said the company’s caramel apples in particular have a huge demand around Halloween.

“Our caramel apples are highly anticipated every year,” Fuller said. “We’ll start getting calls toward the end of August [and] beginning of September.”

DeBrand Fine Chocolates' location on Auburn Park Drive in Fort Wayne.
DeBrand Fine Chocolates’ location on Auburn Park Drive in Fort Wayne.

Although Fuller said DeBrand’s Halloween sales are smaller than sales during Christmas and Valentine’s Day, she said the Halloween season still helps increase sales and “gets the ball rolling” for the end of the year.

The increased holiday sales for Spangler Candy Company and DeBrand Fine Chocolates reflect a nationwide trend of increased annual spending during Halloween.

According to an annual survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Americans are expected to spend roughly $12.2 billion on the holiday, which would shatter the 2022 record that already exceeded pre-pandemic levels of Halloween spending.

Brock attributed those statistics to people starting to treat Halloween as a longer season compared to a single day or weekend.

“People are celebrating Halloween earlier, and there are just more occasions where people are celebrating the season,” Brock said.

After Halloween passes, both companies expect to see increased sales continue into Christmas due to Spangler’s candy cane products and DeBrand’s assortment of chocolate.