It’s tiny, squishy, chewy. It’s shaped like a cute baby mango and GenZers have gone crazy over it. Walgreens can’t keep it in stock.
For the beleaguered drugstore chain, the odd “Gummy Mango” candy is a much-needed win. It arrived last fall in about 2,500 of its 8,700 US stores, and quickly sold out because, of course, TikTok. Online, Walgreens imposed a limit of one bag per customer on the little inventory that remained.
The unexpectedly viral product comes at a time that Walgreens has a lot on its plate that isn’t fun – debt piling up, employee unrest, competitors grabbing market share, store closures, its shoppers spending less on things they don’t need. It’s also juggling with having to keep everyday items like shampoos and shaving cream locked up over theft concerns, much to the annoyance of customers. Walgreens sorely needed some – any – good news.
Fortunately, the mango-flavored treat plays into the company’s long-term strategy of beefing up its front-of-store departments, said Morningstar analyst Keonhee Kim.
The product itself is a $1.99 bag of candy belonging to an on-trend genre of confectionery called gummy candies. This candy from Walgreens’ lower-priced Nice! house brand of snacks and drinks is different because it’s actually peelable.
In early January, a video explaining its uniqueness by TikToker @Trinhdoesthings got a whopping 8.9 million views.
In the video, she picks up a packet of the candy at a Walgreens store “after seeing it all over social media.” She tears it open at her kitchen table and then peels off the outer skin of the mango-shaped gummy and pops the shiny smooth inner pulp into her mouth, proclaiming, “This is so fun.” She then proceeds to eat the peel, too, while complimenting its chewy texture.
TAMPA, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 27: Products are seen on a conveyor belt at an Amazon fulfillment center where they are being sorted and shipped out as same day orders during Cyber Monday at the Same-Day Delivery Facility Fulfillment Center on November 27, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. Dedicated to online shopping, Cyber Monday is one of Amazon’s busiest days following Thanksgiving, marked by retailers providing substantial discounts and promotions. (Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images) Octavio Jones/Getty Images
Other TikTok videos compared the treat to the peelable gummy candies in peach and grape flavors from Japanese or Korean brands available on Amazon, or showed ways to punch up the flavor by adding spice to the mango version.
Walgreens said it didn’t work with any paid influencer to hype up its mango gummies but that it took off organically. It also declined to disclose how many packets it has sold to date or total sales thus far.
Catching the wave
“The interactivity of it is really cool and it’s what makes the peelable candy really fun,” said Marty Esarte, vice president of Walgreens’ owned brands, in an interview with CNN. “It also creates a discussion point: Is the outer layer better than the inner gummy or are they better together or separate?”
Esarte admits that he didn’t expect the squishy treat to become a viral hit. “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.”
The idea for the candy first surfaced in 2023 during a discussion between Esarte’s team and a Walgreens’ supplier.
“One of our suppliers who we’ve worked with for more than 20 years identified this peelable candy trend last year that had emerged in Asia and brought it to us as an opportunity,” Esarte said.