Observations from a Candy Dish
I keep a candy dish on my desk at work. Sometimes this has disastrous consequences for me, if I'm feeling blue and impulsively decide that a couple pounds of sugar intake will do me good (it never does). But most of the time, I enjoy having it there; People will stop at my desk to pick out some of their favorites and chat for a bit, and always seem to enjoy coming by. Plus, it's helpful to have a candy stash to try to bribe people to help out when you need their aid, but that's a whole different post entirely.
Here's a few things I've noticed about the candy dish in the couple years I've been here at my latest job.
Candy Preferences
- The top candy choice by far is chocolate, specifically Hershey's kisses. Whenever I bring in a bag of these, they're gone within a couple days. I tend not to stock up on these a whole lot because of the burn-through rate.
- The least popular choices are sour things like Warheads, Lemonheads, and Sour-Patch kids. There are a few die-hard fans that tend to ONLY pick those, so they're not usually in the dregs of the candy dish, but they definitely don't move that quickly. Other things with a limited audience appeal include individually wrapped bubble gum pieces and lollipops (Blow Pops, etc).
- Good middle-ground items include a mix of soft and hard candies such as Werther's Originals, Laffy Taffy, little jawbreakers, Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Tootsie-Rolls (the little ones) and miniature boxes of Nerds.
Time of Day
- The peak candy time is always right after lunchtime. People must want a sweet snack to finish off their meal.
- The slowest time of the day is first thing in the morning. I guess people don't want licorice to clash with the taste of their coffee or something.
- I get a surprising number of folks who come by near the end of the day - I guess they're looking for something to keep them sated on the drive home. I can just hear their mothers saying, "You'll spoil your appetite!"
- There's no real difference in frequency of visitors by day of the week, except when we have a holiday. The day after a holiday always has more visitors - I'm assuming they need an extra pick-me-up to get over having to be back in the office.
Personality
- Most of the people that come by for candy always seem to be walking on eggshells, practically tip-toeing up to the dish and asking if they can have a piece or two. They select their candy very meticulously and graciously thank me as they walk away.
- A few people come off as brusque and entitled. They walk up and say, "Let's see what there is today..." More often than not these are the folks that will take multiple pieces of candy. They're always polite enough to thank me as they leave, but it always feels more mechanical than heartfelt.
- Some people are too shy to hit me up for candy while I'm sitting at my desk. I'll see them ducking out of my cube area with a piece in their hands as I return from a lunchtime run, or a trip to the break room.
Assorted other facts:
- Not once has anyone ever offered to chip in for the cost of any candy. (Not that I'm asking them to, or even want them to. I just think it's interesting that nobody has.)
- Candy definitely goes faster when I'm not around. If I'm gone for a week, the dish'll be empty when I get back. If I'm around for the same period of time, people only go through about half as much candy. I guess I must be policing them?
- There are other folks in the office who have candy at their desks. For some strange reason, their candy always appeals more to me than mine does. I wonder why?
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Comments
This is interesting stuff. Have you tried using a bigger dish to see if people take more? Other studies have shown people eat more out of a bigger container.
In the novel I'm currently writing, which is about a bunch of people who work together, the candy dish at Reception is a running gag through the whole book. People have to take turns filling it up and I've had a lot of fun thinking up odd things for them to put in it. Chocolate is also the quickest burn-through, even with the fictional characters.
What interesting observations! I police the candy dish at our office, and by far the quickest things to go are the York Peppermint Patties.
Then again, I eat a lot of them...
interesting observations!
That's why I tend to buy things I wouldn't normally eat a lot of -- things with nuts, for instance. Then I can sit smugly by as everyone else stuffs their faces and Isomehow feel superior.
Until I eat an entire bag of peppermint patties. Then I definitely do not have the last laugh.
I'd be one of the die-hard sour candy folks. I'd visit you a lot for Butterfingers as well.
This was a great post! Really interesting.
I'm a die-hard sour candy fan too. I find it interesting too that no one ever offers to chip in, or at least observes what you put in there and just dumps a bag in while you are away.... hang on, maybe they do!! Maybe you are really going through twice the amount of candy you think you are, and those entitled people are really the ones sneaking into your office while you are away and adding things!!!
Yeah, ok, that's just taking fantasy too far...
I used to keep a dish of candy at my desk, too! And then I discovered that I work with more of the entitled crowd than any other, so, after hearing more than my share of complaining about the candy in the dish (Hershey's kisses were the slowest movers, I found), I opted instead to do away with it altogether. It also helped that I had major chocolate aversions while I was pregnant, so I never touched the stuff.
And no one ever offered to provide candy here, either. It's probably just something no one really thinks about. Anyway, I'm contemplating reinstating the candy dish, just to see what happens. Of course, I'll find a smaller container, too. And maybe one with a lid...
I got a couple complaints one time when the dish was empty and I hadn't had a chance to pick up some cheap filler at the store. I responded that the "Candy Fairy hadn't left me anything under my pillow recently." They looked at me a little strangely, but stopped bugging me about the candy :-)
I used to bring candy in, but I was eating too much. Now my jar has an origami alien in it. I am surprised by how many people don't get the alien being in the jar.
Ross, someone wants to see you over by the copy machine (now to get a hershey's kiss).
Slip in some type of candy in that they don't have already. That should really mess with their heads! :D
Make sure to not leave fingerprints on the candy wrappers. Someone will probably call the bomb squad or the poisons information line.
I keep a "chocolate drawer" and have almost the opposite experiences. Most people will walk up to my drawer with sense of entitlement, open it, and complain (loudly) if they don't find their fave. But, then again, that all kind of matches my own personality. Do you think the trends at your desk match your personality?
Although it took a long time, when one person chipped in with their fave (a large back of peanut butter M&Ms), multiple people followed. I have many king size Snickers bars but most people won't take them - they only want a bite of chocolate, not a meal.
I recently started a "coffee station" too, merely stocking all the available flavors of individual creamers (french vanilla, hazelnut, irish creme, and mocha). But that hasn't taken off as well as I had hoped. Common opinion is that I need to add a coffee machine, good coffee (the office coffee SUCKS), and pastries.