Every few months, it seems, another company decides to come out with a “pumpkin spice” version of a popular food product. Now, in an attempt to boost falling cereal sales, General Mills (GIS) is reportedly planning to add the flavor to Cheerios.
Pumpkin Spice Cheerios, to be launched later this year, will only be available for a limited time, according to Bloomberg. It will be the second short-run Cheerios variant to hit shelves this year—a strawberry varietal is hitting the shelves right now.
The cereal industry has been in trouble as more people, especially young people, choose other options for breakfast. Sales of original Cheerios have dropped 18% since 2010.
Pumpkin Spice has become the go-to choice of novelty flavors. It started out as a flavoring for lattes and other coffee drinks, especially at Starbucks (SBUX). But now you can get almost anything—oatmeal, Oreos, even vodka— flavored with the amorphous “spice,” which probably contains things like nutmeg and cinnamon used to make pumpkin pie, but which contains no actual pumpkin.
