Where to Buy Halloween Candy for Cheap in 2026 (I Checked Every Store)

Aldi is the cheapest place to buy Halloween candy this year, with bulk variety bags running as low as 9 cents a piece, and Costco and Walmart aren’t far behind if you time your trip right.

I spent way too many afternoons this month walking the seasonal aisles at Aldi, Costco, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, and a couple of dollar stores, doing the annoying math of price divided by piece count so I wouldn’t have to guess anymore. Every year I used to just grab whatever bag looked biggest at whatever store I happened to be in, and every year I’d get home and realize I’d overpaid. This year I actually tracked it.

Halloween candy shopping always feels like it should be simple and somehow never is. The bags are different sizes, the piece counts are buried in tiny print, and the “sale” price isn’t always the real deal. I broke down what I found store by store, plus when in October you should actually be buying, so you’re not the house handing out store-brand mints because you waited too long.

Key Takeaways

• Aldi had the lowest cost per piece of every store I checked, usually under a dime for name-brand minis like Hershey’s and Mars
• Costco and Sam’s Club get close to Aldi’s prices, but only pay off if you’re buying enough that nothing goes to waste
• Walmart and Target sit in the middle, and both run digital coupons worth stacking in the two weeks before Halloween
• Dollar stores and drugstores cost more per piece, but they’re fine for a last-minute top-off bag
• Candy prices really do crash after Halloween, sometimes 50 to 90 percent off, but that’s a week too late for trick-or-treaters
• Buying before early October usually means paying full price, since most retailers don’t drop candy prices until the sales push starts

How I compared prices

I priced out the standard variety bags each store sells for handing out candy, not the little novelty bags meant for a single kid’s lunchbox.

For each one I took the total price and divided it by the piece count on the label, since that’s the only number that actually tells you what you’re paying per treat.

Some of these prices change week to week depending on when a store runs its Halloween promotion, so treat this as a snapshot from what I saw shopping through October.

Cost per piece, store by store

Store	What I Bought	Price	Pieces	Cost Per Piece
Aldi	Hershey’s Miniatures Assortment	$9.94	110	~9 cents
Costco	Hershey’s Miniatures Variety Pack	$20.99	180	~12 cents
Sam’s Club	Mars Mixed Variety Pack	$25.00	190	~13 cents
Walmart	Miniature Brands Variety Pack	$19.97	150	~13 cents
Target	Chocolate Classics Variety Pack	$18.99	120	~16 cents
Walgreens/CVS	Standard candy bag, non-sale	$6.99	30	~23 cents
Dollar Tree	Small assorted bag	$1.25	8-10	~13-15 cents

Aldi came out ahead every single time I checked, and it wasn’t close. Costco and Sam’s Club are solid too, they just require buying in a quantity that only makes sense if you get sixty or more trick-or-treaters a year.

Store-by-store breakdown

Aldi: This is where I’d send anyone who just wants the cheapest real candy without a membership card. The Halloween assortments rotate as “Aldi Finds,” so the exact bags change week to week, but I’ve consistently seen name-brand minis from Hershey’s, Mars, and Sour Patch Kids priced lower than anywhere else I checked.

The catch is that once a specific bag sells out, it’s usually gone for the season, so I don’t wait until the last week to grab mine. If you want a broader sense of where Aldi wins and loses on grocery prices generally, I’ve gone through that in my Aldi vs Walmart prices comparison and my best Aldi snacks roundup.

Costco: The per-piece math on Costco’s variety packs is genuinely good, but only if you have somewhere for 180 pieces of candy to go. I bought a bag two years ago in early October and by Halloween half of it had turned into snacking candy in my own kitchen.

I’ve also noticed the texture on a few of the chocolate pieces from Costco’s bulk bags can be a little off, slightly waxy instead of properly melty, which I chalk up to how long that pallet sat in a warehouse before it got to the shelf. It’s decent candy, just not quite as fresh-tasting as a smaller bag bought closer to Halloween.

Sam’s Club: Sam’s Club prices out almost identically to Costco, and the Mars variety pack with Twix, Milky Way, and Skittles Gummies is a crowd pleaser if your neighborhood skews toward gummy candy over chocolate. Like Costco, this only makes financial sense in bulk. If you’re buying for a small household with a handful of trick-or-treaters, you’ll do better elsewhere.

Walmart: Walmart is my go-to for the middle ground between price and convenience. The 150-count variety pack I bought this year came out to about 13 cents a piece, right in line with the warehouse clubs but without needing a membership. Walmart also tends to drop candy to clearance the fastest after Halloween, so if you’re stocking up for baking projects rather than trick-or-treaters, check back November 1st.

Target: Target ran a little higher per piece than Walmart in my comparison, but it makes up for it with better circle coupons and a wider selection of individual full-size bars if you want to hand out something nicer. I’d pick Target over Walmart specifically if you’re combining a candy run with other Halloween shopping and want the coupon stacking to offset the price gap.

Dollar stores and drugstores: Dollar Tree, CVS, and Walgreens are not where I’d do my main candy shopping, since the per-piece cost runs higher across the board. Where they’re actually useful is the week of Halloween when you realize you’re short and need a quick top-off bag. CVS and Walgreens both run buy-one-get-one deals that close the price gap somewhat, so it’s worth checking their weekly ad before you go in at full price.

Regional bulk bins: If you have a WinCo or a similar bulk-bin grocery store near you, it’s worth a look. Bulk bin candy priced by the pound can undercut even Aldi if you only need a specific amount and don’t want a pre-packed bag at all.

Name brand vs store brand

I always assumed store-brand candy would be the obvious money saver, and sometimes it is, but the gap is smaller than I expected.

A store-brand chocolate mini often runs only a few cents less per piece than a name-brand one on sale, and I’ve found the taste and snap noticeably worse on a few of them.

My honest take is that name-brand candy on sale usually beats store-brand candy at full price, so I’d rather wait a week for a real sale than downgrade the brand.

The one exception is gummy candy. Store-brand gummies have gotten legitimately good, and I couldn’t tell the difference blind next to name-brand Skittles or Sour Patch Kids in a taste test I did.

When does Halloween candy go on sale

Prices start easing in early October, but the real discounts don’t show up until the two weeks before Halloween.

I’ve tracked this closely enough now to say the sweet spot is the week of October 20th through the 27th, when most major retailers run their biggest pre-Halloween promotions and BOGO deals. Buy before that window and you’re paying close to full price.

The absolute cheapest candy of the year shows up the day after Halloween, when stores mark leftover stock down 50 to 90 percent. That’s fantastic if you’re stocking up for baking, care packages, or next year’s candy dish, but it obviously doesn’t help you on the actual night kids are at your door.

I keep a small stash from November 1st clearance every year specifically for holiday baking, and it’s the best candy money I spend all year.

How much candy I buy

I stopped guessing on quantity a few years ago after running out around 7:30pm and having to turn my porch light off early.

Now I count roughly three pieces per kid and estimate based on how many trick-or-treaters came by the year before, adjusted up if the weather looks good and down if rain is in the forecast. I’d rather have ten extra bags leftover than tell a five-year-old in a costume that I’m out.

If you’re new to a neighborhood or don’t have a past count to go on, buy from a store with a decent return or exchange policy and overbuy a little instead of scrambling on the 31st. Costco and Walmart have both taken back unopened bags for me in past years when I miscounted.

The store I’d recommend

If I had to send one friend to one store this year, it’s Aldi, hands down. The price per piece beats everywhere else I checked, the candy is fresh, and you don’t need a membership to walk in. Costco is my backup pick if you know you’ll go through a big bag, and Walmart is the easiest all-around option if Aldi isn’t near you.

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