Hershey's Swoops Were Discontinued Far Too Soon
If you were around in 2005, you might remember Hershey's Swoops, the infamous Pringles-lookalike chocolates that weirdly came in little brown plastic chip containers. First put on the shelves in 2003, these wafer-thin, chip-shaped chocolates seemed destined for success. Unfortunately, that success never came and Hershey's Swoops were discontinued by the Chocolate World company in 2006, only three years after their introduction. So, what happened?
Hershey's produced Swoops in plenty of classic tasty flavors like white chocolate, Reese's peanut butter cup, Almond Joy, and classic milk chocolate. They also produced fun commercials to entice people to buy the chocolate chips but Swoops just couldn't sell enough to stay on the shelves — and as Fast Company notes about the product failure, "When you can't sell chocolate to a country full of sugar addicts, you know you have a problem". As it turns out, not enough people wanted to try Swoops and there appear to be a few reasons why.
From melt-in-your-mouth to melted down
Although the fun, chip-like shape of Hershey's Swoops was interesting to consumers at first, according to Fast Company's breakdown, there wasn't much of a point to the candy's design and it ended up feeling unnecessary. After all, why would you make something chip-shaped if it's not crunchy or chip-like in any way? There was also the issue of its value. One package of Swoops containing 18 pieces was priced higher than three Hershey's chocolate bars, which together contained more chocolate than Swoops.
Another reason for the possible failure of candy may have been its high calorie and sugar content of the chocolate. Seeing as Swoops were packaged similarly to Pringles Snack Stacks, which are meant for kids' school lunches according to Kellogg's, the high-calorie content and price of Swoops may have turned shopping parents away. Even so, with everything from the early 2000s coming back in fashion from lowrise jeans to puka shell necklaces, is it possible Hershey's Swoops could make a reappearance, too?
Will Swoops make a comeback?
Despite not selling well when it was released, many people today have fond memories of this interesting snack and its catchy "Swoops! There it is" jingle (a play on the Tag Team song "Whoomp! (There it is)." In fact, some candy fans on Twitter have called for Hershey's to bring Swoops back. One user even went on to tweet "I was obsessed with the Swoops chocolate chips as a kid and now that I have adult money I would buy them again". So, if Swoops did come back would they finally be a success?
It seems that Hershey's doesn't think so. In an interview with The U.S. Sun, a representative from Hershey's said "It's always great to see the love and enthusiasm for our products, but at this time there are no immediate plans for Swoops to return". Furthermore, with the more health-focused market of today that has caused even candy companies to cut back on sugar and calories, it doesn't seem like high-calorie Swoops would sell well with customers not actively driving down memory lane. So, it sounds like Swoops will have to continue existing only in nostalgic corners of the internet along with all the other snacks we wish would make a comeback.