First, the good news: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest comes out on DVD on December 5th here in the States. I'm betting that this will bring a surge of Pirates M&M's back into stores for at least a month or three. When Star Wars hit DVD last year another wave of dark chocolate Star Wars M&M's showed up in stores at the same time so I have no reason to expect that they'll break from pattern for this release. Both companies have an interest in having the product in stores so it's nearly guaranteed that there is more on the way. It only makes sense for them to bring them back, if only for a short while.

But just because they make it back to the stores doesn't mean they'll be easy to find. It took a lot of looking to find them when they first came out and I have a feeling that we'll see the same thing this time around. So, in the interest of uniting as many chocolate lovers with their confection of choice as possible, I'm providing the following hints on how to get your hands on some:

• Look in more than the candy aisle. I found them in a variety of places I never would have expected, but never once did I find them in the candy aisle. I did find them on endcap displays, in the seasonal aisle, in the dead zone between the aisles and the registers, in between the U-Scan self serve registers, in the pharmacy - all over the place. The endcaps and seasonal aisle were the best bets for the most part though I found the small bags up near the checkout a lot. Not in the normal candy at each register, but in the separate displays where the limited edition candies often live.
  
• The grocery store isn't the only place to find them. I did find my first ones at Krogers (one of our big grocery stores - they own a ton of chains nationwide including Ralph's out west) but I also found them at gas stations (in small bags), drug stores (small and large bags), mini-marts (small bags again) - all over. I even found them at the checkout at Best Buy in (if I recall correctly) a medium-sized bag. So keep your eyes open. If they sell groceries, candy, or DVDs then they might just have some.
  
• Don't be afraid to network. If you can't find them locally check with the people you know and see if they can find them. Mailing a bag of M&M's isn't terribly cheap, but the price gets better as you pile more bags in. So ask friends, family, co-workers, and internet acquaintances. A team of people can cover a lot more ground than a single person.
  
• Close outs are your friends! If your grocery store has a section where they put things that are being closed out or discontinued or are from a holiday that has just passed give it a look. These can be treasure troves of great stuff. I found the dark chocolate peanut M&M's in a couple of them. And the Odd Lots/Big Lots style of store gets some really good stuff in from time to time (as I discovered in college) and things like these have been known to make an appearance. Keep both your mind and your eyes open.
  
• If all else fails turn to the power of the web. "Oh great and mighty Internet, I beseech you, reveal unto me where I may procure the tasty comestibles known as Pirate Pearls." Don't laugh - it works. You just have to phrase things a little differently and pose your question to the right site. Drop the words "pirate pearls" in at Amazon and you'll find you can order them by the case. As they reappear in stores they should start to show up more on search sites like Amazon, Froogle, Yahoo Shopping and Pricegrabber.

The bad news is that as of now the white chocolate M&M's are likely going to be extinct when the movie promotion is finished. The same thing happened last year with the dark chocolate M&M's from the Star Wars promotion and I don't expect this to go any different. So you may only have a three-month window in which to grab up what you can. The important thing is that after the movie promotion died and the dark chocolate disappeared they were brought back because the customers liked them (and because dark chocolate is a hot item in the consumer psyche of late). So when the Pirates promotion is finally gone there is a good chance that the fans of the white chocolate M&M's can convince them to keep the product alive. And this is what you need to do to try and keep your white chocolate hopes alive. TELL THEM YOU WANT THEM! Send them email. Call their 1-800 number. Make sure that they know, beyond a doubt, that there is consumer support for the product and that letting it die is a mistake.

Good hunting everybody.

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