What’s a food brand to do when it looks at its products and thinks, “How do we make people absolutely ravenous for this product?”
If it’s smart, it chooses a demographic that’s ravenous to begin with: stoners.Â
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Yes, cannabis enthusiasts were once the butt of jokes, doomed to be mocked in movies for their red-ringed eyes and slowed, mellow speech.
But thanks to legalization efforts, the cannabis industry has picked up, and that stigma has begun to recede. As of November 2024, a total of 24 states have legalized the recreational drug, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
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Cannabis has also found its footing in the booming drink industry. With a market size value of $1.16 billion in 2023 and projections to reach $3.8 billion by 2030, one thing is for sure: it’s a lot more than just your typical stoner dude turning to cannabis these days.
Now a very wholesome snack company has decided to appeal to this growing demographic, and it’s a clever move.
The classic Hostess cupcake.
Image source: Shutterstock
Classic snacks that hit just right
If there’s a dispensary near you, you may want to swing by in the days leading up to April 20 and see if Hostess’Â (SJM) Â brand new Munchie Mobile happens to be parked outside.
The 106-year-old brand is sending the truck on a road trip to promote all the Hostess classics, like Ding-Dongs and Twinkies, we’ve cherished over the years.
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You can find the Munchie Mobile outside dispensaries in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut every day at 4:20 p.m., giving out free snacks. If you want to follow the truck to its final destination, it will park in Brooklyn, NY, on April 20 for a six-hour stretch.
J.M. Smucker is going for a major pivot
Ever since it acquired the legacy snack company in 2023 for $4.6 billion, J.M. Smucker has been working on ideas to refresh the brand. The Munchie Mobile is definitely an effort to give Hostess less of a “pack in your kid’s lunch box” and more of a “cool, they gave us free treats when we went to the dispensary” vibe.
So far, the results of the acquisition have been lackluster:Â Smucker reported a 2% YoY net sales decline for its Q4. But that may be affected by a bigger issue: overall interest in snacking has dropped. General Mills and Campbell’s have also noted net sales declines of 5% and 3% respectively, attributing both to softer snack demand.
One reason may be that food costs have simply been rising for a while, and they’re showing no signs of stopping. The cost of food groceries has risen roughly 20% in the last four years. Add in that President Donald Trump’s tariffs may drive food costs up further, and it leaves people more likely to leave that bag of chips or can of nuts on the shelf instead of putting it into their shopping cart.
