Did The iPhone Chew Up Bubble Gum Sales?

iPhone changed the way people communicate.

Apple put the internet in the pocket of millions.

They also made everyone a photographer.

Fittingly camera sales have taken a plunge since 2007.

The introduction of the App Store led to new software developments making life convenient for everyone.

But there is one totally unrelated product that Apple, iPhone, and Smartphones chewed into the sales of: GUM.

Yes gum, a completely unrelated non-tech product, whose sales have plunged 15% since 2007, the year the first iPhone appeared.

Why?

Supermarket Lines & Smartphones

The theory is that supermarket checkout lines are strategically stocked with gum so that customers reach for a cheap pack while waiting in line.

But now that customers have smartphones in their hands, there is no need to make an impulse gum purchase just for the hell of it.

Gum sales in China have been sliding since 2010.

Sales of chewing gum in China reached their peak in 2016 with 1.7 Billion US dollars in revenue, but they’ve fallen to 1.5 Billion in 2018.

And according to the Japanese gum association, sales revenue shrunk from 1.7 Billion in 2004 to 900 Million in 2009.

With the rise of iPhone and Smartphones also came self-checkouts, online shopping, and changes in consumer shopping habits.

Bad Breath Alternatives

In 2014 the Associated Press published a report that gum struggled to keep up with the growing candy market, which presented more options for fixing bad breath, outside of smacking away on a piece of gum.

One notable brand is Hershey Ice Breakers.

Their share of the gum market jumped 2% in 2017.

Some also point back to the price of a pack of gum, most coming in at over $2, as a flaw.

Or maybe it’s the whole image around gum.

It doesn’t have a very professional aura.

There’s something youthful and amateurish about chewing a wad of gum on a first date, or while giving an interview or presentation.

And maybe customers have caught on.

Cash register competitors such as chocolate, mints, and liquorice increased sales by 10%, avoiding the smartphone and self-checkout.

So this may be just a gum issue.