Stores sure do know how to reap in the benefits of Halloween. By putting their “discounted” candy displays out early (like the day after back-to-school ends), people think to themselves, ‘Hey, self, I should buy some Halloween candy now while it’s on sale. I can stock up before all the GOOD candy is gone.’

[Just for clarity’s sake, as a connoisseur of sweets (meaning I consume as much as I can), I believe that the so-called “GOOD Halloween candy” has to be at least 75% chocolate, with any variety of filler such as coconut, nougat, caramel, etc…].

So now self has mega-bags of candy sitting at home, supposedly waiting as much as 2 months for their big day, their debut into the world. This is actually the big test. If that bag remains unopened until Halloween night, you’re safe. If you open that bag early, forget about it. You’ll finish it within the week and you’ll have to buy more. If you bought it at Sam’s Club, BJ’s, or Costco, it’s the size of a grocery bag and in reality you didn’t pay a lot for it, so if you eat a few pieces you’ll still have plenty to give out. Or so you tell yourself. By the time you’ve really put a dent into it, you can console yourself by remembering what a great price it was. Again, for clarity’s sake, I’m not saying this has ever happened to me. It’s entirely possible that I concocted this whole senario merely from speculation.

In any case, the store has now succeeded in selling 2x the amount of candy actually used Halloween night. Not a bad business model. And on November 2nd, the store will be filled with all the discounted Christmas supplies (November 1st being reserved for grocery carts in the aisles filled with left-over unwanted Halloween candy like smarties or milk duds. There’s never any milky ways or m&m’s for 99cents a bag!!). There are people employed by Price Chopper and Wegman’s just sitting around thinking this stuff up! Maybe I’m in the wrong business.