Gum sales a 9% bigger bubble

If you are a gum chewer, you are one of those consumers who have helped boost US gum sales. Last year the industry sold $1.4 billion worth - enough for an average of 200 sticks for every person in the United States. The 9 percent increase over the previous year was pushed along a good deal by relatively new products like sugarless gum, gum for denture-wearers, and by that giant, bubble gum, which holds almost 40 percent of the US market.

Some of this continuing thrust came from a bubble gum innovation that appeared in the '70s: a gum that that doesn't stick to clothing, skin, beards, long hair, or whatever else it is popped on.