by Arnie C
May 12, 2005

Long before the April 2nd official release date I saw them. It was at the checkout of ShopKo. There they were, bags and bags of M&Ms. Despite what one would think to look at me, I do not have a big soft spot for sweets and, as such, M&Ms would not be a big draw. Further, I do not like dark chocolate, so dark chocolate M&Ms would certainly not be on my list.

But these were so damn cute.

M&M characters, colorful and round, in the outfits of some favorite Star Wars characters. An M&M clone, an M&M Darth Maul, an M&M Vader, Han, and Boba Fett, posing with actors from the movies, and with such cute lines as “You don’t know the power of the peanut.” They were adorable. I decided to get the bags…but then became confused. There were four types of M&Ms: Plain, Peanut, Dark Chocolate Plain, and Dark Chocolate Peanut. Each of those types had several bag designs. Each bag of M&Ms was $3. Having over $100 of Star Wars toys in my arms already I decided to pass on these cute, cute bags.

Returning to my office I did a quick Google to discover there were 72 bag designs in all. I figured this out to be roughly $215 at $3 per bag and scoffed. How could they ever expect someone to buy $200 in M&Ms? That’s insanity! And what would you do with so much chocolate in a candy shell?

The next week my wife and I were again at Shop Ko. My wife is a manager at her company and wanted to take some candy to her employees. I recommended M&Ms. Quickly I picked out the four cutest bags, including such lines as “If you only knew the power of the peanut!” and “A little round for a Stormtrooper, aren’t you?” My wife took two bags to work and I took two bags to my co-workers.

Then at checkout I saw some of the small 3 oz bags of M&Ms. These were only 88 cents, and were even cuter with phrases such as “It’s our lot in life to be eaten” with an M&M C-3PO and “I sense much hunger in you.” I bought a few of those as well.