Twix and Twizzlers, Cheetos and chewing gum — you know stores keep that stuff by the register to wear down your consumer defenses. You know that you’re being manipulated. But if you can’t deny the impulse buy, you can at least make a statement by shopping at stores whose counter displays spurn the same old corporate snacks in favor of more-memorable miscellany.

Take Pemberton Farms & Garden Center near Davis Square in Somerville, where exotic condiments surround the register on all sides. With Aunt Sue’s cinnamon-pear jelly or syrup ($6.49/$11.99) and Arbor Hill’s chocolate-cabernet-sauvignon sauce ($10.99), guest-worthy breakfasts and desserts will be a snap. And for flavor-bonanza dinner parties, try Robert Rothschild pineapple-mustard and onion-blossom-horseradish dips ($6.99) for cocktail canapes; first-course salads splashed with Lesley Elizabeth grape-thyme or lime-dill vinegar; and pasta tossed with chardonnay-basil sauce ($9.39/$5.99). Most are beautifully bottled, making for snazzy gifts.

Beacon Hill’s legendary Savenor’s also flaunts a few charmers at the check-out stand. If you’re splurging, the ultimate culinary-luxury item, the white truffle, awaits behind glass in the form of paste or (curiously) flour, both from Sid Wainer & Sons ($35.89/$75). Bargain hunters like the tiny, rainbow-colored tins of Victoria Taylor’s Seasonings ($3.99), which include spice blends from Tuscany and Morocco to New Orleans.

But amidst all these dainties, things can get ugly if your sweet tooth is the bane of your shopping budget. Piled in baskets on the counters are homemade starred-and-striped sugar cookies ($3), Flyer chocolate bars with cool retro labels, and suave additions like ground vanilla beans and coffee ($1.59) and a huge glass jar filled with broken block chocolate ($9.99/pound).

Meanwhile, just down the street, DeLuca’s takes the cake for eclectic impulse buys. Make that the pudding — boxes of Cross & Blackwell plum pudding ($7.79), accompanied by jars of hard sauce ($3.59), perch on the shelves above the register, as do such oddities as plastic cylinders of escargots ($9.39) and carafes of brandied cherries ($11.99). Rounding out the inventory are Salem Baking Company’s cheese straws ($2.59) in such un-cheese-straw-like flavors as port-wine gorgonzola, artichoke-garlic parmesan, and peanut butter.

Finally, check out the 88 Supermarket for candies you won’t see at Shaw’s: tins of honey-loquat drops with fritillary ($1.39), extra-exhilarating ginseng-root drops ($1.89), Tino clear lemon drops with bits of fruit suspended inside ($1.35), and, of course, Hello Kitty chocolates and gummies galore. So you can defy corporate America and spoil your dinner in one fell swoop.

Where to find it:

• 88 Supermarket, 1095 Comm Ave, Allston, (617) 787-2288; 50 Herald Street, Boston, (617) 423-1688.

• DeLuca’s, 11 Charles Street, Boston, (617) 523-4343.

• Pemberton Farms & Garden Center, 2225 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 491-2244.

• Savenor’s, 160 Charles Street, Boston, (617) 723-6328.