Traditional Sweet Shop - thoughts

[AllTheFloralCurtains]

I'm thinking of opening a sweet shop in my village.
I love the idea of an old fashioned sweet shop, with all the goodies lined up in Bell jars along the shelves.

For those of you who have been somewhere similar, could you tell me how you found the set up? (even better if it was 50 years ago!)

If the sweets are in jars behind the counter (so the customer looks over the counter and chooses their sweets, which are then weighed by the server) - I worry the selection will be hard to see.

But if the jars are laid out in a shop space (so the customer picks their jar/s and brings it to the counter) this seems fiddly and open to breakages, plus the server would be constantly returning the jars.

[MrWendel]

Like a PP, I was also going to mention Hope & Greenwood, who had a chain of nostalgic sweetie shops. I would suggest searching online for images of their stores.

What would be the plan for the 'off season'? You could offer a cafe with coffees and hot chocolates etc for those brave folk visiting the seaside in the cold!

[00100001]

@PandemicPalava

There is a shop in Hitchin like this - Simms I think - jars behind the counter plus a selection in the glass counter, pick and mix type - plus the shelves lining the shop walls are dark wook and full of world sweets, interesting stuff

There's two sweet shops in Hitchin.


One is Mr Simms


The other sells tobacco paraphernalia as well as sweets! It's by the town square

[BestZebbie]

I grew up living and working in one of these sweet shops - my parents ran a post office on one side and a sweet shop and greeting card shop on the other. The sweets do not make any money. You will end up stocking 50 jars of which five constantly churn and twenty are regularly used. You can't let customers near the bars or they will steal them and also pick out all the good quality street and leave the rubbish ones, causing complaints from later customers.
The two good things were doing the twirl on the brown paper bags after weighing out the sweets and getting the perk of eating the occasional one found in a jar with no wrapper on...

[DianaT1969]

I think you'll struggle to cover the overheads off-season. If you are in an affluent area, consider other goods alongside it. Jars of speciality loose tea, take away coffee, cake, hot waffles or jacket potatoes, health pack lunches ready by 8am... if Covid taught us anything, it's to prepare for the unexpected and be ready to diversify. Don't neglect your online presence either.
Sometimes the wish to recreate the best of childhood is a hankering after something that's missing in your life (see the Christmas threads from April obsessed with making a "perfect" Christmas). Are you going into this business with your heart or head?

[PandemicPalava]

@NotMeNoNo snap!

[PandemicPalava]

There is a shop in Hitchin like this - Simms I think - jars behind the counter plus a selection in the glass counter, pick and mix type - plus the shelves lining the shop walls are dark wook and full of world sweets, interesting stuff

[NotMeNoNo]

This is a Mr Simms - they vary in size but this illustrates the set up.

[NotMeNoNo]

Have a strong brand and offer party bags, wedding favours, Christmas stockings, raffle prizes and birthday/baby/valentines hampers - so it's not just relying on people walking in.

[NotMeNoNo]

If you can find a branch of Mr Simms they seem to manage well.
Everything in the shop area is wrapped and prepacked including £1/£2 lucky dip bags.
Under the glass counter are small tubs of pocket money sweets (jazzies, smarties, jelly snakes etc) that kids can point to and patient staff make up a weighed bag.
Behind the counter are the big glass jars mostly with more adult oriented sweets - fudges, wine gums, boiled sweets etc, staff will serve from these.

One year we had building work and we ordered big mixed sweet jars for all our Christmas presents - the mix varying from very traditional to modern style. Honestly it went down well and was so easy. They also did a party bag service.

I'm of the view that if you are going to have treats they might as well be good quality ones.

[BikeRunSki]

There is a post office near me that is also an old fashioned sweet shop, jars of sweets on shelves on one side of the shop. Books, stationery, magazines, cards etc on the other side. PO counter services.

The sweets/stationery/PO support each other. The village is a bit of a local attraction with a big farm park and antique shops. I imagine most sweets are sold to day trippers.

[queenofarles]

I was thinking of Hope & Greenwood , they were quite successful but I think they are no longer in business anymore .

It is such a tough market, and might not be that popular with many, Unless you offer other things like speciality coffees?

[AllTheFloralCurtains]

@Gingersnaphappy

I love the romance of the idea and wish you luck but in these days of pestilence I prefer my sweets pre-packaged thank you!

I get that, though an assistant would be handling the sweets with gloves and a scoop - prepackaged stuff is still touched by other people

[Gingersnaphappy]

I love the romance of the idea and wish you luck but in these days of pestilence I prefer my sweets pre-packaged thank you!

[MrsMoastyToasty]

At Cranchs in Salcombe they specialise in their own fudge which used to be made on the premises (not sure if that's still the case)
In Cheddar there is a sweet shop where you can watch the boiled sweets being made, rather like when you go to a living museum. You then move on to the next section where you make your purchases. It's all a bit like exiting through the gift shop.

[Mincepiesallyearround]

Someone may have posted this already but there’s a fab one in north Berwick on the Scottish coast. He has big jars behind the counter, jars of dozens of kinds of lollipops on the counter and then on the shop floor and around bags of preweighed sweets eg fudge and chocolates etc. So you can help yourself to the stuff on the floor but have to ask if you want 100g of jelly babies etc.

[anniegun]

Mr Simms is a franchise mrsimmsfranchising.co.uk/
Might lower the risk

[Oversize]

I have an early memory of being told off for pressing my face on the window of a sweetshop.

[Pusspot]

Have a look at The Oldest Sweet Shop website in Pately Bridge.
It’s a lovely shop but very small. They also have an online shop which I suspect will be far more profitable. I bought £20 worth recently. Very nice.
If you are going to offer other services onsite, bear in mind that staffing costs will probably increase.

[AllTheFloralCurtains]

@Oversize

Like the one Violet grey has posted but instead of a wall behind the shelving, it's the shop window. Then people can see the sweets clearly though the window and have a browse while they're outside. You could even have a window hatch to serve through to the street.

YES, this is a great idea. There's a huge street window that could be utilised for this

[mootymoo]

But I would look into having artisan chocolates as well, local producer would be ideal, though proper Belgian always is a good seller

[Dogsarehairy]

To run what you describe the wage bill would be £75k with staff on a minimum wage.

[Oversize]

www.papabubble.nl/en/?gclid=Cj0KCQiApY6BBhCsARIsAOI_GjZGauiXVUs3bn7eUTl0M6_jheBCVwPEdWZWMqG9BTEM_lubg8_WsFEaAsAwEALw_wcB
This place is amazing. I went while they were making the sweets and the smell does its own advertising. The sweets were delicious.

[mootymoo]

As lovely as it sounds, and would love to get toffee bonbons and lemon sherbet pips , I think you will need a wider range to make it work or do mail order to reach a wider client base. American sodas are very popular at the moment for instance

[AllTheFloralCurtains]

@Dogsarehairy

Are you a philanthropist who wants to donate money to the community?

No way to be profitable.

I'm a successful, experienced business person who can see an opportunity

[AllTheFloralCurtains]

Do Chat threads still get deleted after 30 days?
I'd like to post some updates once we're up and running, it really is a viable business here but I don't want to go into it too much until I've actually set up