The Seasonal Lineup

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is rolling its annual Peppermint Bark collection back onto retail shelves for holiday 2026, expanding the assortment to five SKUs — two of them new — with suggested retail prices ranging from $7.49 to $16.79. The line is available now at participating retailers nationwide, in Ghirardelli's own retail stores, and direct-to-consumer at Ghirardelli.com.

For c-store candy sets, the core items are the most relevant grab-and-go play. The standard Peppermint Bark SQUARES® (4.6 oz., $7.99 SRP) and Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark SQUARES® (4.5 oz., $7.99 SRP) are individually wrapped for the impulse lane, while the 10.4 oz. Peppermint Bark Assorted SQUARES® and Snowmen bag ($16.79 SRP) targets the gifting occasion that increasingly drives c-store seasonal candy sales in Q4.

Two New Entries

The two 2026 additions broaden the line's reach into distinct use occasions. The Peppermint Bark Sweater Gift — a 4.2 oz. festive box carrying roughly 10 mixed SQUARES® with a To/From tag — retails exclusively on Ghirardelli.com at $7.99 and targets the gifting consumer rather than the forecourt impulse buyer. More actionable for operators with a foodservice or baking-ingredients set is the new Peppermint Melting Wafers: a 10 oz. bag at $7.49 SRP designed for chocolate dipping and holiday baking, a category that convenience chains with expanded back-of-house programs have begun merchandising alongside seasonal dispensed-beverage builds.

"There's something special about the traditions we look forward to each year, and for so many, Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark has become one of them," said Bobby Oliver, Vice President and Head of Marketing at Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, noting use occasions that span gifting, dessert boards, and holiday entertaining.

Channel and Club Context

For high-volume operators, Ghirardelli is also distributing club-size formats — a 16.2 oz. Peppermint Bark Collection at Costco and a 16.7 oz. version at Sam's Club — signaling the brand's intent to capture pantry-loading trips at warehouse channels in parallel with single-serve impulse sales at convenience and drug.

Seasonal candy is a reliable Q4 driver for c-store inside sales. According to NACS data, candy remains one of the top five inside categories by gross margin dollars for the channel, and limited-time seasonal SKUs from established brands generate stronger velocity than year-round equivalents in the same price tier. Premium chocolate — defined broadly as $5 and above at c-store retail — has outpaced the overall candy category on a unit-sales basis for the past three years as operators upgrade their candy sets to capture trading-up behavior.

Ghirardelli's select retail stores will also feature limited-time Peppermint Bark Sundaes and Peppermint Hot Cocoa, reinforcing the dispensed-beverage and foodservice angle that branded chocolate suppliers increasingly use to support in-store activation at their own locations — a tactic that provides merchandising cues c-store operators can adapt for their own seasonal beverage programs.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.