Halloween Bartering

“Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!”

Children alike, ages from two to twelve are getting dressed up in ghoulish costumes, awe-inspiring comic book superheroes, and delicate fairly-princesses. What time is it? Halloween.

You’ve heard of the basics: hear the doorbell, listen to uttermost common phrase (“trick or treat!”), and hand each child a candy. The biggest problem that can occur on Halloween is running out of candy.  To solve this issue, some run to the store, where the last minute candy prices are at an all high, and others just turn off the lights in their house and pretend they’re not home. Each of these run-out-of-candy options lead to their own misery. If you dash to the store, by the time you come back, all the little ‘treaters will be off in bed and you’ll want to strangle yourself for wasting money and time. If you are to turn off the lights, prepare yourself for the next 50,000 ding-dongs or so, or die of annoyance. 

The win-win solution is the term Halloween extremists call “Candy Bartering”. Gather some leftover snacks (from Jello, to Cheese-Its, to Oreos) from your pantry, and trade Trick-or-Treaters the snacks for pieces of candy in their bucket (that came from other houses). With such a unique and exotic feature, they will be bound to trade. If the snacks happen to be in an all high demand, hold auctions to really get the most candy out of a snack. 

After a few “swaps”, you will find yourself with a new supply of candy to hand out. And if all fails: Buy more candy next year.