Economy Candy Halloween Candy Shop on the Lower East Side

Economy Candy at 108 Rivington Street is the Halloween candy shop for people who want the bag to taste like a specific decade. The Lower East Side store is narrow, loud and stacked to the ceiling with more than 2,000 items, from candy corn sold by the pound to chocolate-covered graham crackers, and in October the front bins tilt hard toward orange, black and anything shaped like a body part.

The business started as a shoe and hat repair shop with a candy pushcart parked outside. When the Depression hit, the cart outsold the repairs, and in 1937 the shop became Economy Candy. After World War II, Morris "Moishe" Cohen and his brother-in-law took it over and added chocolate, dried fruit, nuts and gift baskets. Cohen worked the sidewalk at the original corner of Rivington and Essex in every kind of weather, cigar in hand.

His son Jerry and Jerry's wife Ilene moved the store to its current address in the early 1980s and ran it together for more than thirty years. Their son Mitchell joined in 2013 and his wife Skye in 2016. On July 29, 2023, the city co-named the northwest corner of Rivington and Essex Streets Morris "Moishe" Cohen Way, so the walk from the subway passes a street sign that tells the shop's story before you reach the door.

Most of the store's Halloween stock is sold loose, and the prices on its own website give a fair sense of the math. Candy corn runs $5.99 a pound, and the shop counts roughly 220 pieces in each pound. Mellowcreme candy pumpkins are also $5.99 a pound but far chunkier, at about 56 pieces. Strawberry gummy teeth and Vidal's gummy missing body parts are $6.99 a pound, which makes them the cheapest way to add a gross-out item to a party bowl.

For chocolate, Monster Mix is the bin to know: foil-wrapped chocolate pieces printed with cartoon monsters, $6.99 a pound and about 50 pieces each. Salty black licorice cats are $8.99 a pound and divide any group cleanly into fans and refusers. Halloween Pez dispensers sell for $2.49 and a sugar skull candy tin for $3.99, both small enough to tuck into a costume pocket.

The real reason adults make the trip is the stock organized by decade, with shelves and online sections for the 1950s through the 1990s. That is where Mary Janes ($5.99 a pound), Bit-O-Honey minis ($4.99), Chick-O-Sticks and Goldenberg's Peanut Chews turn up, the candies that used to land in pillowcases and now rarely appear in supermarket variety bags.

Imported and specialty sweets fill another wall, including Haribo, Ritter Sport, Taza chocolate and boxes of halvah. A good October bag here mixes three things: one nostalgic chew, one chocolate everyone recognizes, and one oddity from the imported shelf that sparks a conversation at the party. The family itself lists chocolate-covered graham crackers, chocolate pretzels and jelly rings among the regulars' favorites.

If you have no time to scoop, the shop packs Halloween CandyCare Packs. The Fangtastic size costs $39.95 and holds about ten handfuls of classic trick-or-treat candy along with themed extras, while the Halloween Haul pack is $64.95 and several larger versions reach $100. They work well as office gifts or for a host who would rather not build a bowl from scratch.

For a bigger crowd, the 5 Pound Candy Mix and the 5 Pound Chocolate Minis Mix are $20 each. The candy mix is random by design, and the store estimates 20 to 25 handfuls per bag, which is roughly enough for a classroom or a stoop on a busy Halloween night. Pair one of them with a pound of something theatrical, like gummy teeth, and the bowl looks curated without much effort.

Inside, the aisles are just wide enough for one person and a basket, and the week before Halloween brings families, collectors and tourists into the same space at once. Grab a basket at the door, work the front Halloween bins first, then move toward the back walls of chocolate and imported candy. Step aside when someone with a stroller needs to pass, and keep loose items in separate bags so the scale at the counter goes quickly.

Weekday afternoons are the calmest stretch, and arriving close to opening on a Saturday beats the midafternoon crowd. Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday, so expect the store to be at its busiest on Friday evening and that morning. Set a budget before you start, because the floor-to-ceiling displays are built to make one more bag feel reasonable.

Delancey Street–Essex Street station, served by the F, J, M and Z trains, is a short walk south of the store, and the route passes the Moishe Cohen Way sign at the Essex corner. From there, Essex Market on Delancey Street is the easy follow-up for a sit-down snack, with produce stalls, cheese counters and lunch vendors under one roof.

Head west on Rivington and turn onto Orchard Street to see the tenement buildings that the Tenement Museum interprets, along with small galleries and boutiques. Seward Park, a few blocks south, gives children room to run off the first wave of sugar before the evening's costume plans. Russ & Daughters on East Houston Street is close enough for anyone who wants a savory counterweight to a pound of candy.

Economy Candy is at 108 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002, between Essex and Ludlow Streets, and the phone number is (212) 254-1531. The official contact page lists the store as open seven days a week from 11am to 6pm. Its holiday calendar for 2026 closes the shop on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and Halloween is not on that list, so October 31 keeps regular hours.

A second outpost, A Taste of Economy Candy, operates inside Chelsea Market for anyone shopping on the West Side. The store sells reusable shopping bags for $1 and canvas totes for $12, which is useful when a large haul has to survive the subway. Prices quoted here come from the shop's own website, and loose candy is weighed at the counter.