• by Karlene Lukovitz , October 31, 2018

If you or your kids are fed up with being stuck with cheesy candies on Halloween (and who isn't?) — and you can make your way to lower Manhattan early on Halloween Eve — you might be in luck.

Continuing its heavier-than-ever Halloween 2018 marketing push, Hershey’s’ Reese’s brand is stirring up social and general media buzz with a heavily promoted “Candy Exchange Vending Machine."

Using the machine is no trick: Just drop your undesirable candy in a slot, and a Reese’s candy pops out.

But there are two hitches. First, the one-and-only machine will be stationed outside New York City’s Washington Square Park (on Fifth Avenue, between Washington Square North and East 8^th Street) for just a few hours (4 p.m. to 9 p.m.) tonight. Second, the machine can only make 10,000 exchanges, so latecomers may be stuck with their second-rate confections.

As part of the media outreach, Reese’s is claiming that “90% of Americans” have traded or wished they could trade their Halloween candy at some point (based on its own survey of 1,200 adults — methodology unstated). Also, that four out of five respondents would like to trade for a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

In addition, the brand is touting the results of a competition conducted last Halloween by election pollster FiveThirtyEight, in which Reese’s won the most match-ups when 80 candies were pitted against one another.

Reese’s is, of course, using social media to get the word out. “No tricks here. Trade in your Halloween candy for Reese's candy. What'd you expect from the GOAT of Halloween?!,” the brand tweeted about its conversion machine, adding the hashtag from its ongoing campaign, #NotSorry, and #ReesesCandyConverter.

It also posted a video (below) on its social channels, including YouTube, of folks trying out the “magic” machine — which had its first run on Oct. 27 at the annual Halloween parade in Tarrytown, New York.