[LairMistress]

I'm looking at OTC's candy selection, and wondering...what is the average price per piece that you'd call reasonable?

They have their wax fangs half off right now, but they're still approximately 46 cents apiece. I've only begun to look, so I'm sure that they have better deals than that. I just thought they'd be good for novelty items.

However, the glowing fangs and candy blood bag combos from DT & DG are around 13 cents apiece. (8/$1)

Usually, we do one novelty item, plus glow bracelets, and just buy bulk bags of chocolate and suckers from local stores.

 

[The Auditor]

To be honest, I've not calculated it down to the price per piece level. I usually pick up a couple boxes of candy bars or rice krispie treats at Costco, and justify it as "it's just one time per year..."

 

[SPOOK-ELLA]

I have no idea. I say the same. It's once a year and we are buying full size candy bars.

 

[deadhouseplant]

I think it really depends on how many TOTers you anticipate, there is a big difference between 20 and 500+. The amount you need divided by what you want to spend total equals your maximum price per. Of course in 15 years at this house we've never had a TOTer so...

 

[UnOrthodOx]

We do full size.

Lessee, this year, a can of soda is running at .25 (super cheap at July sale, bought a bunch for Halloween)

Haven't checked the rest yet.

Big Grab bags of chips will usually run .20-.30
Pixie stix (BIG ones) run around .25
Chocolate candy bar, full size typically runs .40-.55

Other:

Glow bracelet: Never pay more than .08 is my rule of thumb.

 

[kittyvibe]

Last few years I try to keep the candy to .06 or .08c a piece, then a novelty item like glow bracelets which I get 10 for $1 at Michaels (.10c each), less if you use a coupon, and splurge a bit on something chocolate but I try to keep the total amount per kid to .50c in candy.

I also theme my stuff, last year I got nice sized cotton candy bags for .50 each and mixed it up with some other stuff. The cotton candy was the splurge item.

This year I got my candy from Oriental trading when they had some great clearance prices and spent about $25 and have enough to give to about 85 kids. I also bought plastic wands as the splurge item since Im doing witches this year.

 

[doto]

We don't spend too much on candy - about $60-70 dollars for approx 200 kids. Ya it's pretty cheap, but I spend money on the haunt/display and they get the experience they don't get anywhere else in our area.

 

[LairMistress]

That's the way that I feel about it too, doto. We are one of three decorated houses in a three four block radius. There's only two others that I've seen nearby, one on a block north of that, and one on a block south of that. One house per block in 6 blocks, which is pathetic! I mean, the others don't even have a Jack o'lantern, colorful porch light...not even a cardboard cutout in the window. Nothing!

I buy the 10/$1.00 glow bracelets too, but only because I've been buying them locally. I may order them online this year, to make them cheaper (provided I can find free shipping, otherwise they'd likely be more expensive than locally).

I was initially looking at the wax fangs at OTC, but went to DG yesterday and saw that they have the "Bloody Bites" again this year, which is the GITD fangs with blood bags, individually wrapped at 8 pc/$1.00. Those went over really well last year, so I will probably just do that again.

I was also looking at Halloween themed sucker/pop candy combos at OTC, but DG has 55 pc pop candy packs for $2. Last year they weren't Halloween themed, the packages were just black. They don't come with suckers, but I don't think that the ToTs will really care. I'm on the fence on that one though, I really liked the OTC combo packs.

Previously, I had bought lots of Halloween themed mini rubber ducks on Amazon, because they were cheaper than anywhere else. I've done that two years in a row though, and thought that maybe little stuffed animals would be better. I give those to the ToTs who are obviously too young for candy. (parents still get a couple of pieces if they want it, usually we get pretty nice folks here) That's why I was checking OTC to begin with, to see what their beanies and plushies prices are.

 

[Muffy]

I would love to give large bars but simply would need to many. Last year we bought 17 bags of candy and gave each child a few pieces. I use to do the little bags and put 5 pieces in there but we just started running out of time. We have all kinds of bowls & plates in the kitchen full of all different kinds of candy and the kids go nuts. Each person going through gets a bag of fresh popped popcorn including the adults and then they get brownies that we bake ourselves and individually wrap. I thought they might not want something we bake ourselves but a lot of them know we were professional choclatiers and made candy for stores. One year I did not have time to make the brownies and everyone was like>>>>>>Hey!! Where's the Brownies. Let me tell ya, making over 600 brownies ain't no little project, but the house sure smells good.

 

[SpookyBlackKat]

I don't price by the piece but just get the best I can for my budget. If I have leftover $$ from my haunt I'll put it towards candy. I'm usually able to score great deals at CVS the week before with sales and their rewards card.

I may do OTC this year. I get anxious waiting until the last minute to buy candy. Makes me itchy!

Unfortunately we've had a range of 30 ToTs to 120. It varies so much it's hard to plan. I would do full size bars for 30 but I can't for 120. One year I did grab bags for the first 50 and then a normal bowl for the latecomers. The bags were a hit with some but a miss with others so I'm not putting that much time into it again.