A disheartened Midwestern mother has packaged proof of the funeral pyre that is the US economy.
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that → package → pyre
In a recent TikTok video, Danielle Martin, a physical therapist and mother of two, shared her shocking discovery.
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Martin → share → discovery
“Look at what I found going through my son’s Halloween candy from his trunk-or-treat over the weekend,” she teased before revealing the sad sight of an individually wrapped gummy bear.
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she → look → bear
For the uninitiated and/or the childless, trunk-or-treat is an alternative to traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating that sees the youth soliciting candy by going from car to car in a designated parking lot.
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youth → see → lot
It’s all you get—one gummy,” Martin underscored, calling the single plastic-wrapped bear a recession indicator.
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Martin → ’ → bear
“A true sign of how horrible our current economy is,” Martin surmised.
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Martin → surmise → ?
Typically, gummy bears, even those packaged for Halloween, come with at least 5 to 7 mini cubs per pack.
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bears → package → pack
In her caption, Martin added the rallying cry, “Bring me more bears.”
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Martin → add → bears
The clip has been viewed nearly 340,000 times since she posted it last week.
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she → view → it
I guess private equity bought gummy bears,” speculated one viewer.
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viewer → guess → bears
“The audacity to label it ‘gummy bears’ plural,” added another.
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another → label → it
“It’s actually more expensive to package them this way,” said a third.
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third → ’ → them
“Remember in the 90s we had to go back to the car to switch out our loot bags because the candy was too heavy?
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candy → remember → bags
I’m so sad for today’s kids,” reminisced a sad Millennial.
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Millennial → ’m → kids
We now make 200K combined and can’t afford to be that house,” added another.
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another → make → K
“I would make sure that’s not an adult gummy,” cautioned another.
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another → make → ?
A fellow parent shared that they too have previewed the end times courtesy of individually wrapped Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids.
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they → share → Fish
In an email to Bro Bible, Martin shared that her son was in fact “thrilled” with the individually wrapped offering.
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son → share → offering
“His favorite stuffed animal is ‘Blue Bear,’ a gummy-bear shaped stuffed bear, so when his candy looked like his bear that was very exciting for him.”
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that → stuff → him
Martin added that she was not criticizing the candy nor the person who handed it out.
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who → add → it
“I was by no means bashing the individual handing out these candies, just merely commenting on its singleness.
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I → bash → singleness
We were happy to receive any candies or treats that were being handed out,” she explained.
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she → receive → candies
She added that many commenters called trunk-or-treats the downfall of Halloween, a stance she firmly opposes.
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she → add → stance
“Trunk or treat gives families more opportunities to participate in fun, free and festive activities all month long!
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Trunk → give → activities
It prolongs the excitement, and I don’t feel that it detracts from trick-or-treating on Halloween at all,” she stated.
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she → prolong → Halloween
Moreover, Martin shared that she was surprised by many of the more inflammatory responses to her post.
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she → share → post
“I was shocked at how many comments insinuated that this might be a THC gummy; that was not ever a thought in my mind.
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that → shock → mind
Many others were making it political.”
The rage-bait debate over the individually wrapped gummy bear has, unsurprisingly, made it to Reddit.
“Individually wrapped gummy bears from a zoo trick or treat event,” wrote an unhappy user, who posted side-by-side photos comparing the item’s packaging to a multi-pack, captioning the post ‘A story of rage in three photos.
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who → make → photos
“F—king nonexistent is what their FUN size stands for,” one commenter suggested.
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commenter → stand → what
Martin’s post and the Reddit grievances come as a recent Finance Buzz study found that the cost of filling the candy bowl has climbed 71% since 2021 — more than triple the national inflation rate of 22%.
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cost → come → %
The Aporia
