Where do you buy cheap "stocking stuffer" style presents?

Target has a dollar section right at the entrance and sometimes there’s really cute stuff in there. I also make use of the trial size section in regular grocery/drug stores (my kids are all teens, now).

Yeah, Target is a good idea… Maybe try Big Lots/Odd Lots as well? Haven’t been there in years, but when I was a kid at least, it seemed like there were so many cheap treasures there!
Often hardware stores will have inexpensive gifts at the front, sort of like how there are candy bars at grocery store checkouts to tempt you into impulse buys. I’ve seen nice little doodads like backscratchers, LED key chains, gloves, pocket umbrellas, etc., at hardware stores.
Are there any recurring flea markets in your area?

I buy things throughout the year. My kids are older but I get given sample perfumes when I buy cosmetics often so I keep them. I buy things from museums and art gallery gift shops and places like the Body Shop. I bought some whistles for my daughters to keep in their handbags from the War Museum recently.

I love oriental.com. Especially if I’m trying to buy things for a group. I also like stupid.com.

I prefer things from the grocery store, like fruit bowls, popcorn, nuts, and such. I guess it’s a holdover when my favorite gift to receive was an orange.

It depends upon the age and size of the group. I try to avoid the cheap, Made in china junk. I figure the world does not need another cartoon character shaped piece of plastic. My stocking sturffers come from the grocery store or stationery store like Staples, or local garden store. I tend to give useful things that come in large packages that I can split up. Yellow sticky note pads, batteries, food items, seed packets, Jiffy pots, etc.
For adults, the stuffers will have something to do with the theme of the event. I had a decks of cards printed with a special message and gave a couple of cards to everyone. That was fun.

These are all good. i should mention that I am looking to buy stuff for a slew of upcoming 3 year old birthday parties.

Do you have a Christmas Tree store in your area?

We have one about 45 minutes away. I had no idea it was a year round store.

For nerds, there is no better place than ThinkGeek . I could spend hundreds on that site on $5—$10 dollar stuff.

I’ve bought lots from think geek.
I took a chance and got a string of lights for my nephew that represented cubes from some video game I had never heard of. I knew he was an uber gamer and think geek seemed to have lots of stuff related to the game.
When my nephew got it he was shocked and said “How did you know I played that?
I didn’t tell him I just knew he was that geek.

Here there are a number of second-hand Rose shops where one can buy really nice, attractive and useful stuff on the cheap.

I just went to the Christmas Shop. That was quite a place. It’s a lot like what Big Lots used to be like.

Target.

Will you let us know what you decided to get? I did not know it was for 3 year-olds.
How about getting package of pipe cleaners and giving each child about 6? They can twist them into shapes and they look and feel so interesting.
When my kids were younger than 2 I would give them pieces of masking tape strips rolled into cylinders with the sticky side out. It was magic.

I’m not really deciding on just one place. I wanted a wide net so I could get a good variety. I also discovered that Jo-Ann fabrics has lots of good things.

This thread is making me miss the OLD Big Lots. Now everything is their name brand and the stores are uniform. I really miss the days when you could go into a store and find all kinds of quirky things. My favorite thing to do was buy regular groceries in foreign languages. Like I’d by Kool-Aid with Hebrew script or Corn Flakes with all the text in Finnish or some other Scandinavian language. Now Big Lots has lost all the charm. I miss it.