Is COVID keeping Peeps off the shelf this Halloween good or bad? A divided nation weighs in
Peeps: Angels to some, demons to others. The marshmallow(-ish) candy has been a divisive cultural staple since 1953, prompting regular, vigorous debates on its taste, aesthetics, caloric content, and whether or not one could properly be counted as “food.” Unfortunately, despite a seemingly indeterminable shelf life (two years, give or take), even Peeps apparently aren’t immune to COVID-19's many ramifications.
“While PEEPS® Marshmallow Candies, MIKE AND IKE® and HOT TAMALES® would typically be available in fun shapes and packaging sizes for the Halloween and holiday seasons, unfortunately, the seasonal varieties will not be in stores again until 2021,” Peeps’ distributor, Just Born, told Delish in a statement last week. “As you may know, due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily suspended production of our candy brands to ensure the health and safety of our associates…This situation resulted in us having to make the difficult decision to forego production of our seasonal candies for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day in order to focus on meeting the expected overwhelming demand for PEEPS® for next Easter season, as well as our everyday candies.”
Perhaps somewhat expectedly, confectionary connoisseurs have since gone to war over whether or not a Peeps famine is, in fact, a good or bad thing.
There’s the Peeps defenders:
And those celebrating its untimely demise:
It’s also probably worth keeping in mind that we now can add goddamn Peeps to the list of “people and/or entities taking COVID-19 more seriously than the Trump administration.”
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