Shelf Shift: Who's Taking Candy's Seasonal Space? Halloween at Walmart vs. Target

At a glance

• Candy draws shoppers to the seasonal aisle. 96% of shoppers plan to buy candy, and NRF expects the season to drive $13.5 billion across Halloween categories in 2026, with candy at $4.1 billion alongside costumes and decorations.
• Candy shares its seasonal space. Snacks and party goods take the most room alongside candy, and even Halloween-themed soap and beverages are squeezing into the seasonal set.
• Walmart and Target use different strategies for different shoppers. Walmart leads with price printed on its knock-out displays and a ladder that makes trading up easy. Target leads with themed displays, exclusives and promotions.
• Out-of-stocks show up early. Empty slots appeared weeks before Halloween, and in a crowded set, the space and sales shift to another product.

If you're like me, you love Halloween

If you're like me, you love everything Halloween, and especially the candy. Walking the Halloween aisles at Walmart and Target in late September, I was so excited to see all the classic and new themed products. Pumpkin-shaped Reese's, Nerds Gummy Clusters in spooky flavors, Harry Potter Kisses, even Halloween hand soap.

But with Halloween a few weeks away, the shelves were telling a second story. Snacks and party goods are squeezing into seasonal space alongside confections, and even soap and beverages have a spot. And some of the best-selling candy slots were already empty.

Walmart and Target are running two very different plays for two very different shoppers. Both plays leave less room for error for the candy brands that aren't watching their space.

Candy is in almost every cart, in a $13.5 billion season

The National Retail Federation expects Halloween spending to reach $13.5 billion in 2026, in line with last year's record $13.1 billion (NRF, Sept. 22, 2026). Candy is the most popular purchase: 96% of shoppers plan to buy it. But in dollars, it trails the other two big categories.

Three more NRF findings matter for anyone selling into the seasonal aisle:

• Discount stores are the top destination, chosen by 39% of Halloween shoppers. That's the Walmart and Target lane.
• The season starts early. About half of shoppers (49%) plan to start in September or earlier.
• Shoppers are price-hunting. If prices run higher than expected, 31% say they'll comparison shop and 26% will look for coupons or sales.

So nearly every shopper buys candy, the season is long, and those shoppers are comparing. A candy brand that's out of stock, or squeezed out of its slot, loses that sale to whatever is sitting next to it.

The NRF survey asked 7,889 consumers, Sept. 1–9, 2026, with a margin of error of ±1.1 percentage points.

Walmart: the price is the display

Walmart's seasonal set was built for the shopper who wants the number first. Everyday Low Price signs, in English and Spanish, hung over the pallets in Action Alley. On the shelf, the price was printed right on Walmart's own orange, yellow and black knock-out displays, next to a slot code ("$5.57 … 37H").

Prices climb as you walk. In Action Alley, the pallet signs stepped from $5.57 to $9.94 to $23.87. Inside the variety-bag aisle, the ladder climbed with piece count: $5.78, $5.84, $7.94, $9.94, $11.94, $14.86, $17.86, $19.87. The ladder makes it easy for shoppers to trade up. Most steps added only $2 to $3, so moving from a $5.78 bag to a bigger mix was a small decision at every shelf, not one big jump to $19.87.

Hershey's owns the first impression. The lead Action Alley pallet was Hershey's, Kit Kat and Reese's at $5.57. The in-line chocolate set was a wall of Hershey's, Reese's, M&M's, Snickers, Twix, Kit Kat and Butterfinger.

Exclusives were everywhere. "Only at Walmart" labels sat on Nerds Gummy Clusters Spooky, Haribo Goldbears, Kraft Caramels, Dum Dums and Laffy Taffy.

• A full Action Alley display of Softsoap Halloween hand soap at $3.96, topped with Haribo shippers.
• Pumpkin carving kits, novelty toys, party plates and napkins, plush and treat sacks mixed into the same gondolas as Skittles and Snickers.
• Dot's Pretzels across the top shelf above candy, and stacks of trick-or-treat pails on top of the chocolate set.
• Seasonal snacks blended into the candy aisle rather than given their own space: Welch's and Gushers fruit snacks, Cheez-It, Oreo, Rice Krispies Treats Spooky Minis and Wednesday cereal snack packs.

Other categories were in the candy space. This is the part most shoppers walk past:

Target: the experience is the display

Target's seasonal set was built for the shopper who comes to browse. At the front of the seasonal section sat a Harry Potter shop built to look like Honeydukes, the candy store from the books, next to a "Robes & More" storefront. It was confections, merchandised like a boutique: Chocolate Frogs, Cockroach Clusters, Fudge Flies, novelty lollipops, and Harry Potter Kit Kat and Hershey's Kisses, mostly at $4.99–$5.99, with buy-one-get-one signs on the bins. Nearby were Marvel and Super Mario costume endcaps, a Día de Muertos cart, and a McCormick Harry Potter "25 Years of Magic" display of finishing sugars in flavors like Chocolate Frog and Treacle Tart. That was the baking aisle, merchandised as Halloween.

This fits Target's stated strategy. The retailer says nearly 70% of its 2026 Halloween collection is new and about 60% is available only at Target (Target, Aug. 12, 2026).

Price showed up as a promotion, not on the box. Target's shippers were branded but unpriced. Prices sat on paper shelf tags, and the message came from red signs: "Sale! Buy 1, get 1 50% off" on Halloween candy, "25% off" on snack boxes, "Low price!" toppers, and "New lower price" tags. A Reese's endcap was entirely buy-one-get-one, with a Reese's Mini Pumpkins sidekick display at $2.89.

Snacks and drinks got their own address. A hanging sign marked a dedicated "Halloween snacks" aisle. It held Oreo, Takis Zombie, Cheez-It, Goldfish, Pirate's Booty, Pringles, Mother's, Drizzilicious and other salty snacks. A "Low price!" beverage endcap carried Halloween wines for those of drinking age (Witches Brew, and 19 Crimes Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, at $10.99–$11.99), Liquid Death Killer Cola (a soda-flavored sparkling water with 2 g of sugar, 10 calories and no caffeine) and Severed Lime, and Coca-Cola and Sprite mini cans. Next to the candy, baking and entertaining got their own sections: Funfetti cake mixes, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, treat-decorating kits and Halloween serveware. Target's own announcement lists Bloom Sparkling Energy "Pear Scare" among its featured Halloween treats.

Same brands, different exclusives. The core candy was the same Mars, Hershey's and Ferrara lineup Walmart carried. But both retailers are chasing exclusivity on the same brand: Walmart labels its Nerds Gummy Clusters bags "Only at Walmart," and Target promotes a Target-exclusive Nerds Gummy Clusters Halloween Variety Mix.

Snacks are taking a real share of the edible seasonal space

If you look only at the edible part of the seasonal section (candy, snacks and drinks, leaving out costumes and decor), snacks are more than a side note. Our estimate, from the sections we photographed:

These are rough counts of shelf sections in our photos, not measured linear feet. Treat them as directional. Target's dedicated aisle made snacks far more visible, but their share of edible space was close to Walmart's.

The direction is what matters. At Target, a shopper looking for Halloween treats could walk a full aisle of Takis, Goldfish, Cheez-It and Oreo before reaching the candy. At Walmart, fruit snacks and Cheez-It sat in the same gondolas as Skittles and Nerds, competing for the same eye-level shelves.

Either way, salty snacks, cookies and crackers are chasing the same Halloween basket as confections.

Weeks before Halloween, the holes were already showing

Both retailers' candy sets showed visible gaps weeks before Halloween:

• Walmart: empty bays in the fruit-snack and novelty candy sections, empty knock-out displays scattered through the variety-bag aisle, and a top shelf that had been picked almost bare.
• Target: empty chocolate shippers on the top shelf, and a candy endcap with its lower shelves nearly bare, right under a buy-one-get-one sign. Several of the honeycomb bins for single-serve candy were empty too.

An empty slot during a promotion is a double loss: the brand paid for the promotion and the shopper buys the product next door. And in a set this crowded, with snacks and soap and pails competing for the same shelves, the space and sales shift to another product.

It's a costly problem at retail scale. IHL Group estimates out-of-stocks cost retailers $1.2 trillion globally in 2025 (IHL Group). That figure covers all of retail worldwide, not just candy, but it shows how much is lost to empty shelves.

What this means for brands fighting for seasonal space

Candy brands are competing with snack makers, beverage brands, baking brands and even personal care for the same Halloween shopper. A brand that isn't watching its space week by week is likely losing some of it.

Here's what we'd be tracking if we sold into these sets:

1. Share of shelf, every week. How many facings and trays you hold versus your planogram, and how much of the edible section now belongs to snacks and other categories.
2. In-stock on your top slots. Especially during promotions like Target's buy-one-get-one, when an empty slot costs the most.
3. Price position on the ladder. At Walmart, where your item lands on the step from $5.57 to $19.87. At Target, which of your items are on promotion and which are at full price next to a competitor on sale.
4. Display execution. Whether your pallet, endcap or sidekick display went up where and when it was supposed to, and whether it's still full.
5. Who's moving in. New categories showing up in your gondola, like soap in Action Alley, pretzels on your top shelf, or baking in the snack aisle.
6. Exclusive competition. When both retailers carry exclusive versions of the same brand, as with Nerds Gummy Clusters, each store's set needs to be checked on its own terms.

None of this is visible from a sales report. It's visible on the shelf.

How Snap2Insight helps you win the seasonal shelf

The soap display, the price ladder, the empty shipper under a sale sign: none of it shows up in a sales report until the season is over. Snap2Insight puts eyes on the shelf while there's still time to act.

• Fix out-of-stocks. Find the empty shippers and bare endcaps, like the ones we saw weeks before Halloween, while there's still time to refill them.
• Measure merchandising impact. See whether your Action Alley pallet, endcap or sidekick display is actually earning its space.
• Hit your Perfect Store targets. Check facings, slot position and price point in every store, not just the ones your team visits.
• Boost field productivity. Send reps first to the stores with holes or missing displays, instead of walking every aisle.
• Track store level planograms. Catch snacks, soap, pretzels and pails moving into the space your planogram says is yours.
• Supercharge your promotions. Confirm the buy-one-get-one sign is up and your product is on the shelf behind it.
• Ensure contract compliance. Verify that paid displays and retailer exclusives are executed the way your agreement says.

Talk to Snap2Insight about tracking your seasonal space at Walmart, Target and the retailers that matter to you, before Halloween, not after.

Observations from Walmart and Target store visits in late September 2026. Seasonal sets, pricing and stock levels vary by store and change week to week, which is exactly why brands need eyes on every store.