How Online Influencers Got Addicted to Swedish Candy
TikTok’s obsession with Scandinavian sweets, which began in early 2024, has squeezed global supply chains and shows no signs of slowing down.
January is normally a slow month for candy sales. The holiday rush has come and gone. People sweep their pantries of excess sugar, resolving to have a healthy new year.
But for the handful of US businesses selling Swedish candy, the first month of 2024 was anything but quiet. Leo Schaltz, a co-founder of BonBon, a chain of stores in New York City that sells colorful gummies, licorice and chocolates imported from Scandinavia, couldn’t believe his eyes in mid-January when his phone told him there were 1,000 online orders waiting to be fulfilled, way up from the usual handful. “It was bizarrely many. I thought it was something weird,” he says.