Who has best deal on holiday lights? We test top Valley stores for BEST prices

PHOENIX - 'Tis the season for holiday lights!

They're pretty much everywhere you look this time of year... but you don't have to go broke to deck your home with lights.

I compared prices at stores around the Valley, including Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart.

Right away I noticed the biggest savings by simply going with the store-brand over the name-brand lights.

For example, I found a pack of 100 mini lights at Home Depot for $2.69.

That's the cost for the Home Accents brand, which is Home Depot's brand.

You'll pay more than double that price for the GE brand of the same type of lights, at $5.48.

 

When looking at all four store brand prices, Target charged the most for 100 mini lights at $2.99.

Lowe’s cost a penny cheaper, followed by Home Depot at $2.69 for the same type of lights.

Walmart had the best price of the stores we compared, charging $2.68.

 

You'll pay a lot more in order to save on energy.

We compared LED mini lights and this time we included Sam’s Club and Costco.

Having a Costco membership won't save you any cash for holiday lights.

They cost the most out of the stores we compared... 16 cents per light.

Home Depot charged 14 cents per light.  Walmart and Target will cost you the same, 13 cents per light.

Lowe’s was just a penny cheaper.

But you'll get the best bang for your buck if you have a Sam's Club membership, because they charge the least, just 10 cents per light.

 

We also priced the store brand LED C9 lights.

For 25 lights Home Depot has the highest price at $8.47 for the pack.

Target is about 50 cents cheaper, $7.99, followed by Walmart at $7.98.  Lowe’s has the best price of the four stores charging $6.34 for 25 LED C9 lights.

Sam’s Club and Costco had very little variety and they only carried brand name LED lights.

Sam’s didn’t carry the C9 lights; Costco had a 50 pack of them, Energy Smart brand for $16.49

We found the most variety at Lowe’s.

But if you plan on buying lights, buy sooner rather than later.  Several of the stores we visited are already starting to run out of options.