Brent A. Jones

Because I no longer qualify for candy donations on Halloween night, I tend to go out and purchase my own the day after to treat myself, coworkers and friends.

This year, I thought it would be fun to break it down a bit. And yes, those are 356 half-rolls of Pez (in the flat photo, the quarter is for scale).

Overview

I bought nine different varieties of candy -- Reese's Cups, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Pez, Payday and KitKat. I decided to run a cost analysis to see how much candy I received in cost per piece and cost per oz terms, as well as how much I actually received in ounces versus what the packages said I should have received.

Summary and Highlights

Overall, I purchased $36.27 worth of candy, which totaled 719 individual pieces and 266.55 oz. That works out to, rounded, a nickel per piece and fourteen cents an ounce. Based on the contents weight printed on the large outer bags, I should have received 268.46 oz., but based on the weight of individual pieces derived from the nutrition info (or, in two cases, printed on the individual pieces), I actually received 266.55 oz., a discrepancy of -1.91 oz. The average number of calories per piece is just over 75, and the total number of calories in the haul is 34,715.2, or more than 17 days' worth.

Cost/piece

1. Pez - $0.02
2. Payday - $0.05
3. KitKat - $0.06
4. 3 Musketeers - $0.07
5. Butterfingter - $0.08
6. Milky Way - $0.08
7. Baby Ruth - $0.09
8. Snickers - $0.10
9. Reese's Cups - $0.12

Cost/oz

1. Payday - $0.07
2. KitKat - $0.11
3. Butterfinger - $0.12
4. Baby Ruth - $0.14
5. Milky Way - $0.14
6. 3 Musketeers - $0.14
7. Snickers - $0.16
8. Pez - $0.16
9. Reese's Cups - $0.17

Discrepancy in oz. expected and oz. received¹

1. Snickers - +1.04
2. KitKat - +0.98
3. Milky Way - +0.89
4. 3 Musketeers - +0.83
5. Butterfinger - +0.05
6. Reese's Cups - 0
7. Pez - (1.6)
8. Baby Ruth - (1.9)
9. Payday - (2.2)

Source data

• 1 bag of 3 Musketeers at $3.29, 44 pieces
• 1 bag of Baby Ruth at $2.99, 34 pieces
• 1 bag of Butterfinger at $2.99, 37 pieces
• 5 bags of KitKat at $1.25 (ea.), 112 pieces
• 1 bag of Milky Way at $3.29, 39 pieces
• 1 bag of Payday at $1.50, 30 pieces
• 5 bags of Pez at $1.74 (ea.), 356 pieces
• 2 bags of Reese's Cups at $1.74 (ea.), 28 pieces
• 2 bags of Snickers at $1.89 (ea.), 39 pieces

Methodology

Each candy was purchased in the largest-quantity-bag possible (to maximize value). Except for the Pez and the KitKat, I bought either one large bag or two small bags of the candy (e.g. because Snickers were only available in small bags, I bought two). "Piece" means one piece of individually wrapped candy, except for Pez, which are wrapped in 6-piece rolls. All other candies are "fun size", except for Reese's Cups, which are individually-wrapped full size cups. Reese's Cups and Pez had oz. printed on each individual pieces. To determine oz. of individual pieces of other candies, the nutritional info provided grams per serving and pieces per serving, from which oz. per piece were calculated.