March 28, 2018 – By Clair Robins 
 
 Your favorite candy will always be around, right? When you think of panic-buying, you wouldn’t think of candy. But that is exactly what’s happening right now. People are panic-buying Necco wafers candy in bulk. 
 
 The panic began on March 12. That day the Boston Globe covered an announcement from Necco CEO, Michael McGee, that they could be shutting down within 60 days. 
 
 The Globe’s piece coincides with a marked spike in sales. Necco sales have spiked more than 50% more than 82%. Necco Wafers are up 63% 150%! A clear signal of panic-buying. 
 
 EDIT: Due to increased media attention in the past days, we have had to adjust these figures. Way up! 
 
 Embed this Source: Bulk candy sales from CandyStore.com 
 
 Short for New England Confectionary Company (“Co”), Necco is the maker of Necco Wafers, Mary Janes, Clark Bars, Candy Buttons, Squirrel Nut Zippers and more beloved old-fashioned candy. Maybe you’ve heard of Sweethearts candy conversation hearts – aka the most popular Valentine’s Day candy? Yeah, they make those too. 
 
 After months of trying to find a buyer, they haven’t been able to reach a deal. If no deal comes soon, hundreds of workers will be laid off and millions of candy lovers disappointed. 
 
 This is a big deal. Necco has been around since the mid 1800s. Almost all of their candies are legends in their own right. All of them are in jeopardy now. 
 
 The graph above illustrates daily sales for Necco Wafers in March this year on CandyStore.com. You can see where things change on the 12th and stay high above that until the time of this article on March 28. As a private company, we don’t share specific sales numbers. But you can see the relative change in sales. It’s not subtle. 
 
 Online bulk candy stores like CandyStore.com are stockpiling Necco candies, but orders are coming in fast. We contacted industry partners and distributors and they are reporting the same phenomenon. The big question is, when will the shipments stop coming? 
 
 No one can say, which only contributes to the panic. 
 
 Ok. Maybe you’re not a numbers or graphs type of person. I’m not. Sometimes I need a little more to really feel the situation. For all the touchy-feely emotional people like me, here are some non-financial-y data / anecdata for you: 
 
 Necco March 2018 Stats from CandyStore.com 253 emails received by CandyStore.com starting on March 12 inquiring about Necco branded candies. 167 panicked phone calls asking about Necco branded candies, many trying to secure large bulk quantities. 77 Social media messages expressing fear and sadness for their coming loss. 29 Customers offering to pay double or more for bulk quantities of Necco candy. 3 People offering to work in return for Necco candy buying priority. Is that indentured servitude? 1 Used car trade-in offer. 
 
 
 
 That’s right. Katie Samuels, a 23-year-old woman from Florida, contacted us offering to trade her used Honda Accord for all our Necco Wafers. This is the picture she sent us via email. 
 
 She told us over the phone that she was in fact “dead serious.” She went on to say she doesn’t have much else to offer right now, and that her boyfriend drives her around in his truck mostly anyway. “Plus, there’s a bus station not too far if I need it.” 
 
 Katie estimated in her desperate pitch to us that the car could be worth up to $4,000. That would buy a lot of Necco wafers. “Pleeeease say yes!” she pleaded. 
 
 Unfortunately, we’re not a used car dealership, and we had to graciously turn down her offer. She ended up buying a couple boxes on her credit card anyway. So now she has 48 rolls of Necco wafers to ration over a lifetime with many years to go! When you run the math, Katie can have 2 Necco wafers a month until her 94th birthday. 
 
 Not enough? Maybe Honda or Carmax would be willing to entertain the trade-in offer, Katie! 
 
 A nice older woman called and wanted to buy 100 pounds of the junior roll-sized Necco Wafers. When she mentioned they are better for vacuum-sealing, our team pressed for details. Long story short, this woman plans to vacuum seal Necco wafers so that her supply will remain as fresh as possible…for years. 
 
 Another fine gentleman named Larry saw this very article and sent us his story about Necco candy: 
 
 When I got my DAISY RED RYDER BB GUN in 1960 it was recommended by I think Boy’s Life Magazine to use Necco wafers as targets. We would suspend them on strings. The back stop was a heavy carpet hung in a “J” shape. It would catch the BB’s for reuse & we also ate the broken pieces of Necco wafers. In those days we wasted nothing, money was tight & we had to earn it. I still have a fine collection of Red Ryders & I watch the movie “A Christmas Story” every Christmas & still eat the occasional wafer. 
 
 But it’s not all love. Necco Wafers, in particular, are a divisive candy. Sales figures don’t (and can’t) illustrate the dark side of sentiment. …Though there are people who would probably negative-buy Necco Wafers if that were a possible thing. We have seen both sides of the passion. 
 
 We did a piece on the Best and Worst Halloween candy where Necco wafers ranked the #4 worst. We asked customers to give feedback to support their opinions either way. And Necco Wafers got by far the most written feedback. After digging through the results, we found the following comments: 
 
 Necco Wafers Haters Chime In I’d say they are like Tums, but Tums are f__ing better than Necco wafers! If you’re making chalkboard art, then by all means. Otherwise, Necco wafers suck all moisture out of my mouth and all joy out of my soul. We used to save them from Halloween and use them in Gingerbread houses at Christmas time. All that time, never tempted to eat em. Ick. Necco Wafers have to be #1 worst. The Worst worst worst. Chalky, creepy, child-molestor candy. 
 
 You can see there are two-sides to this coin. Both are equally passionate. 
 
 If you are one of those who loves Necco, what can you do? 
 
 You might think, oh well, someone will buy the rights to make the popular ones and the Necco Wafers will live on. For sure. But will it be the same? If they use new cooks, new machines, different water, maybe in a different climate. Maybe the new owner will use cheaper ingredients or more expensive ingredients. Odds are it won’t be exactly the same. And it could be very different. 
 
 We can’t risk it. There’s got to be a better option. 
 
 The best thing we can do is get the word out there. Potential buyers of Necco need to hear loud and clear how popular these products are. They need to hear from us how important it is to keep Necco right where it is in Revere, Massachusetts. Keep those factory workers employed and making that candy that we all love (or love to hate). 
 
 If you think this article is interesting, share it and use the tag #SaveNecco. Let’s show everyone that Necco is still in high demand. 
 
 Let’s #SaveNecco. 
 
 UPDATE: Former Necco CEO Needs Your Help to Save Necco 
 
 Email me if you have any questions or comments: clair@candystore.com 

 Necco wafers have been around since before the Civil War—and plenty of detractors would argue they taste like it, too. 
 
 The flavors have been described as “tropical drywall,” “plaster surprise,” and “attic citrus.” One Twitter commentator calls it a candy that “only a psychopath would like.” 
 
 And yet, like anything appreciated only after it... 

 NECCO-Mania: Fans Stock Up On Chalky Wafers In Case Candy Company Folds 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Dina Rudick/Boston Globe via Getty Images Dina Rudick/Boston Globe via Getty Images 
 
 NECCO wafers are a polarizing candy. Some online haters have compared the brittle sugar disks to chalk, or antacid tablets. But now, the company that makes them could soon close shop — and that's brought out some of the candies' very loyal fans. 
 
 At Sugar Heaven in Somerville, Mass., David Sapers points out that there is a lot more NECCO on his shelves than just those controversial wafers. NECCO buttons and NECCO Sky Bars share shelf space with the classic wafers at his store. 
 
 "Also NECCO makes things like Squirrel Nut Zippers, Mary Janes, Slap Stix. And obviously during Valentine's they're big with their ... conversation hearts," he says. 
 
 NECCO is an acronym for the New England Confectionery Co., which is in financial trouble. If its leaders can't find a buyer by early May, the company says it will have to shut down, laying off hundreds of workers at its factory in Revere, Mass. The company didn't respond to requests for an interview. But at Sugar Heaven, Sapers is getting ready. 
 
 "I just ordered 10 cases of [NECCO's products] yesterday, which were delivered on Thursday. So I did that because first of all, they don't go bad. They're going to last for a while, and just in case something happens, we have it." 
 
 Customers Inge Nakel and Michelle Scannell buy some candy, including a roll of NECCO wafers. The classic roll has an incongruous mix of flavors, including orange, licorice and clove. 
 
 "I love the chocolate ones," says Nakel. 
 
 "You can buy a whole roll of chocolate. That's the best thing in the entire world," Scannell says. 
 
 "You know what's best, is their conversation hearts," says Nakel. Scannell agrees. 
 
 Those candy hearts with little amorous messages on them are a Valentine's Day staple, and Sapers says Sugar Heaven will buy up as many as it can if it looks like NECCO won't survive. And he is not the only one stocking up. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Craig LeMoult Craig LeMoult 
 
 "Today alone we probably sold 30 cases. We're selling a lot," says Jon Prince, who runs the online retailer Candyfavorites.com. He says sales of NECCO wafers have spiked. One caller wanted to buy his whole inventory, but he is limiting the size of each sale. "And the person actually started to cry and they said they couldn't imagine a world without their NECCO wafers," he says. 
 
 NECCO traces its roots back to 1847, when the Chase brothers started making candy. It wasn't until a merger in 1901 that the firm officially became the New England Confectionary Co. 
 
 The famous wafers are memorialized by a small sculpture in a park in Cambridge, Mass., near where the company's factory once stood. The metal sculpture depicts a paper bag, with NECCO wafers spilling out of it. 
 
 Kelly Haugh, who works in the building next to the sculpture, is a huge fan of the candy. 
 
 "My mother-in-law, like, probably three years ago, found out that I was obsessed with NECCO wafers and started just buying them for me," Haugh says. 
 
 Every Christmas, her stocking is full of them. "So I think I liked them a whole lot more when I didn't have a cabinet full of them. But now I'm glad I have my stash," Haugh says. 
 
 She realizes not everyone is a fan. Its flavor and texture can be pretty controversial. "They're definitely not a normal thing for people to love. It's like people say they're chalky or whatever," Haugh says. 
 
 But standing near the statue, Joey Barbosa tried them for the first time and had a more positive reaction. 
 
 "Mmmm. They're very good. Crunchy, tasty. Pretty much it," he says. 
 
 Another NECCO fan, Spencer Ordway, is hoarding wafers, but not because of their tasty crunch. He runs a sleepaway camp in Maine, and for more than 70 years, at an end-of-summer carnival, campers have used NECCO wafers as a currency to play games and buy prizes. 
 
 "I had so many alumni and current staff contacting me today saying, 'What are we going to do? How can we save enough NECCO wafers to, uh, cover us for years to come?' " Ordway says. 
 
 So he went online and bought enough to keep the carnival funded for the next few years. And he says the camp's stash is safe, since he is not likely to be raiding it anytime soon. "I mean, it is really like chewing on chalk." 
 
 Even so, he is still hoping the company can pull through somehow, so NECCO wafers — and the company's other candies — will be available for generations to come.
– CandyStore.com is calling it "the Great NECCO Wafer Panic," and that's no exaggeration. Terrified by reports that the New England Confectionery Co. may soon be out of business, fans of the candy company's sugar wafers are stocking up, with one woman offering to exchange her 2003 Honda Accord for CandyStore.com's hefty stash. The offer was refused, so she bought 48 rolls instead, reports the Boston Globe. Jon Prince of CandyFavorites.com tells NPR that another fan tried to buy his entire stock of NECCO Wafers and cried after learning sales were being limited. "They said they couldn't imagine a world without their NECCO wafers," says Prince. Of course, not everyone loves the wafers, which come in flavors like chocolate, clove, and licorice. "I mean, it is really like chewing on chalk," one man tells NPR. More likely to be missed are NECCO's conversation hearts, always a hit around Valentine's Day. A few weeks after this year's holiday, NECCO said it would be forced to close—meaning 395 lost jobs at its factory in Revere, Mass.—unless it found a buyer by May. NECCO sales on CandyStore.com have jumped 82% in the aftermath, while wafer sales have spiked 150%. The turnaround might not be enough to save NECCO, but "who knows, NECCO wafers might make a comeback the way Twinkies did," Revere's mayor tells the Wall Street Journal.