We’re back with another cost comparison! This time we’re tackling Valentine’s Day candy. More specifically, chocolate. Insert drooling emoji here. We’ve seen lots of prices skyrocket over the past two years (we’re looking at you, eggs), and we’re doing our best to find the retailers that are keeping prices low so you can keep money in your pocket.
Valentine’s Day candy is never cheap, and to be perfectly honest, the best time to buy it is after February in clearance sales. But since many of us need candy on Feb. 14 to shower our loved ones with affection, we’ve got the details on where to shop.
We’ve also covered where to buy milk, eggs, and butter to get the lowest prices. And don’t forget to download the Krazy Coupon Lady app to stay on top of all the best money-saving tips and deals.
We recommend these four retailers for your Valentine’s Day candy this year.
We reviewed five different types of Valentine’s Day candy to figure out which retailer has the best overall prices in 2023. Above you’ll find a breakdown of the price differences by store. We looked at large assortment boxes, small gifting boxes, and bags of individually wrapped chocolates. The clear winners are Aldi, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart across the board. Each of them won or tied as the winner in all five categories, with Walmart squeaking in with more overall lowest prices.
Related: 10 DIY Valentine’s Day Boxes That Are Easy and Affordable
Shop Aldi or Walgreens for Russell Stover assorted chocolates.
Walgreens has the absolute best price with a 30% off coupon, but you have to ship it to your home to get the discount and shipping is only free for $35 orders. So if you order this 10-ounce Russell Stover box, it will drop from $12.99 to $9.09 with code VALENTINE which works out to $0.53 per chocolate. But you’ll need to pad your order to ship them to your home for free with $35.
While Aldi carries affordable chocolates in their own store brand, we also found the 14-ounce box of Russell Stover Assorted Chocolates for just $9.98. Aldi’s box has 24 pieces, which is the largest of all the retailers and works out to just $0.59 per chocolate. Aldi is the best grab-it-at-the-store price and Walgreens is the best price if you spend enough to ship it!
Walmart and Target have 10-ounce boxes with 17 chocolate pieces for around $11 or $0.65 per chocolate, which is around $0.06 to $0.11 higher per chocolate than Aldi or Walgreens.
Try Target, Aldi, or Walmart for Russell Stover 3-piece gift boxes.
The giftable 1.5-ounce boxes each have three pieces of candy. Target is your best bet if you’re a RedCard holder. At $1.29, they drop to $1.23 after the 5% discount or $0.408 per chocolate. Both Walmart and Aldi have these boxes for $1.24, or just $0.413 per chocolate. Without the RedCard, Target works out to $0.43 per chocolate. So if you’re not a cardholder, Aldi or Walmart should be your go-to. Walgreens has a 3/$5 deal which still works out to be more expensive at $0.56 per chocolate. That being said, keep an eye on Walgreens’ sales as we enter into February. More on that later!
TIP: Watch for Target Circle offers on Valentine’s Day candy. We’ve already seen two offers for 20% and 25% off!
Target Circle now gets you the best price for Dove Promises hearts.
Next, let’s look at some individually wrapped chocolates. Target now has 20% off select Valentine’s Day chocolate in-store and for order pickup or same-day delivery. Regularly $4.99, this Target Circle offer drops them to $3.99 per bag or $0.11 per chocolate, the lowest price on our list!
Aldi and Walmart both have Dove Promises for just $4.48, which works out to $0.51 per ounce, or roughly $0.12 per chocolate.
Walgreens was a price-low winner last week, but their current promotion isn’t as good. They have a BOGO 50% off sale on their Dove Promises. MyWalgreens members also get $1 off when you buy two, regularly $6.99 each. So you get two bags for $9.48 with this sale. They also recently added an additional 30% off when you buy online with code VALENTINE but our team has found them sold out for shipping everywhere. So the BOGO 50% off and $1 off work out to $0.13 per chocolate at Walgreens.
Ferrero Rocher-lovers should stick to Walmart.
Walmart has the 16-count Ferrero Rocher gift box for $6, which works out to $0.38 per chocolate. Aldi has a smaller box of 12 chocolates for $5.28, or $0.44 per chocolate, which brings them into second place. Target comes in third with a price of $5.99 for the same 12-piece box as Aldi but working out to $0.50 per piece (or $5.69 and $0.47 per chocolate with a RedCard). And Walgreens has the most expensive price at $10.99, or $0.69 per chocolate (for the same 16-piece box we found at Walmart).
Walgreens prices get more competitive closer to Valentine’s Day.
Just as we suspected, Walgreens has started their Valentine’s Day candy sales as we get closer to Feb. 14! At the time we published this article, they had BOGO 50% off on select bagged candy and an additional $1 off for myRewards members when you buy two. Now, you can get 30% off select Valentine’s Day candy (when you shop online and ship to your home with code VALENTINE) along with the BOGO 50% off, making this the lowest price for some Valentine’s Day candy. We recommend that you always check Walgreens’ prices for candy during the holidays. When comparing Walgreens’ sales, do some quick math to ensure that you’re paying less per chocolate, particularly if you have to buy two to snag the 50% off deal.
It’s best to avoid Amazon for Valentine’s Day candy.
We did include Amazon in our initial Valentine’s Day candy cost comparison but decided not to include them in our overall list of suggestions. Not only are their prices higher across the board, but very few items are also actually sold and shipped by Amazon. As an example, let’s look at Russell Stover assortment boxes. While we couldn’t find the exact 10-ounce or 14-ounce boxes we saw at Aldi and Walmart, we were able to work out the price per chocolate on a few boxes. The 35-piece, 20-ounce assorted box is $39.95, or $1.14 per chocolate. That’s $0.55 higher per piece of chocolate than Aldi!
Ferrero Rocher is more competitively priced on Amazon. If you’re looking for a larger Ferrero Rocher gift box, you can find some that work out to $0.37 per chocolate, which matches the best price at Walmart. We do recommend that the items at least ship from Amazon, even if they aren’t sold by Amazon. This will make returns much easier if anything should happen.
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