Okay, so I needed some balloons for my kid’s birthday party, and I was like, “Where do I even get these things?” I haven’t bought balloons in ages, so I was totally clueless. First, I drove over to the local party supply store, you know, the big one with all the decorations and costumes. I figured they’d have tons of options. And they did! They had all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. I found plain latex ones, the shiny foil kind, even some with cartoon characters printed on them.
Party City
I grabbed a few packs of the plain ones, just your basic rainbow colors, because they were pretty cheap, and then I got a couple of the foil ones with my kid’s favorite superhero on them. Those were a bit more pricey, but hey, it’s a special occasion, right? The only thing is, they also charge for helium, which I think is such a rip-off.
- Latex balloons – 50 pieces.
- Foil balloons – 5 pieces.
- Helium fill charge is a rip-off!
Walmart
But then, I remembered that Walmart has a party section too, so the next day I went to check it out just to compare. Their selection was okay, not as big as the party store, but they had some decent options, and their foil balloons were cheaper! The best part? They included helium when you bought the balloon. I only got a few more just to take advantage of the free helium.
- Smaller selection than Party City.
- Foil balloons are cheaper.
- They fill your balloons with helium for free!
Dollar Tree
Finally, I also stopped by the Dollar Tree, just out of curiosity. I mean, everything’s a dollar, so I figured why not? They actually had some balloons! Not a huge variety, mostly just solid colors, but hey, for a dollar, you can’t really complain. I picked up a couple of packs there too, just to add some more color to the mix.
- Small selection of mostly solid colors.
- But, only a dollar per pack!
- They had helium too!
So, in the end, I ended up getting balloons from all three places. I got the bulk of them from the party store, a few special ones from Walmart, and a handful of cheap ones from the Dollar Tree. I think I got a good mix, and my kid will be happy, which is all that really matters. The whole thing was a bit of a mission, but it was kind of fun too, in a weird way. It’s like, who knew there were so many places to get balloons, right?