Maximize Profits by Expanding Your Candy Department

Imagine your convenience store increasing sales and becoming known as the go to place for all sorts of in demand candy.  When neighborhood kids and teens have money burning a hole in their pocket it will be a no brainer where they will spend it.  It will be your store because they know you’ll have the sweet treats they’re looking for, even if they don’t quite know what they’re looking for yet. Adults with a hankering for nostalgic candy will pop in because your store is top of mind for candy from their youth. Let’s look at the ways to get more people in the door and more sales on your books by increasing your candy stock!

The first thing on your list should be looking at the slow sellers in your shop.  These tend to be grocery items. Yes, the odd person might need to grab a liter of milk for the next morning, but it’s probably pretty rare that customers are after frozen perogies and packaged pastrami.  Those sorts of items are being shopped for regularly in grocery stores, which are open later and later, so folks are able to avoid paying the premium convenience store prices for grocery items.  This means they stay on your shelves until they expire and you have to throw them out.  Wasting food and money.

What does sell and has a pretty long shelf life? Candy. Corner and convenience stores are the perfect retail environments to be well stocked with all types of candy. Since there are a lot of convenience stores located in residential areas, it can be tricky to set your business apart from the others vying for consumer attention.  The secret to standing out in the market is creating a niche.  Candy is an excellent niche to adopt.

If you convert your establishment into a candy store with a large selection customers will buy more. Candy is often an impulse buy and when a customer is in the mood for a sugar fix they will grab for more than one type of candy at the time of purchase.  More variety equals more opportunities to buy all of your favorites.

Selling these days is not just about having a building with a bunch of merchandise inside, it’s about the experience you provide. If you have a candy store your business will exude the feeling of fun, childhood, and play.  This opens the door for all sorts of attractive promotions, customer interactions, and event contests and games. With all of this positivity around candy sales, you’ll create a loyal fan base of repeat customers for your store.

We believe you could even go as far as creating a candy wonderland. Setting up whimsical displays and having large sections of candy creates a magical and inviting atmosphere.  There is a certain level of enchantment that happens with brightly colored packages and the promise of delightful sweets filling our mouths.  It creates lasting memories and takes us back to past times we’ve enjoyed candy from a special store.

Make sure you create candy sections in your store. Here are a few suggested categories:

Sour Candy

Sour candy is popular across a boatload of demographics.  School age kids to teens to adults crave sour candy.  One particularly well liked variety is Sour Patch Kids. They give you the initial tart that fades to a sweet finish.  They come in a huge assortment of flavors and have brightly colored packaging that ignites excitement.

Licorice and Hard Candy

Those in the more senior years of their life tend to enjoy old fashioned candy.  Their buying habits lean toward the routine and familiar. If you’re the shop known to have licorice and hard candy on your shelves, you can bet your store will be a frequent stop.  Try to keep all twelve flavors of Claeys Old Fashioned Candy in stock.  The packaging is very retro and inviting.

Not only that, Gustaf’s licorice is a fantastic traditional licorice and comes in different varieties such as all sorts and coins.

Retro and Nostalgic Candy

Kids of the eighties and nineties are now the parents of school age children and want to share the joy of their favorite candy from childhood with their offspring. Bottle Caps, Mike and Ikes, Sweetarts, and Nerds, these are just a few of the throwback candy brands that bring back a flood of memories like riding bikes around the neighborhood and playing tag with the kids on your block. Take parents back to those happy times with your candy selection.

Cool Hard to Find American Candy Bars

Picture being known as the only place in town that sells hard to find American candy bars. When people fall in love with a certain candy they can go through an obsessive phase.  We are creatures of habit and if you’re the only known store to stock the snack people want, they will keep coming back for more. Payday, Mounds, Baby Ruth, and Heath bars are all satisfying candy bars that will make your customer’s mouths water and drive them to seek out more.

The latest in TikTok Candy

With the rise in social media comes widespread candy trends.  Teens and tweens will seek out what influencers are talking about on their channels so it’s a good idea to have it on your shelves.

For example, Slime Lickers from Toxic Waste. This sour rolling liquid candy is suitable for people of all ages. A few rolls will leave a trail of color on your tongue, causing your taste buds to wake up. There are even Tik Tok challenges for this candy making is extra popular.

Another social media famous candy is Planet Gummi. The bag contains four gummies that are shaped and colored like our planet! Each gummy is individually wrapped in plastic to keep the earth's sticky and chewy texture! They have a delicious fruity oozy center, similar to the equator.

Kids can’t participate in these fun Tik Tok trends without the candy!

Novelty Candy

Young people and the young at heart are attracted to novelty candy.  Kidsmania is a brand that knocks it out of the park when it comes to producing candy that is intriguing with fun packaging.   They’ve got mini gumball machines, slot machines, cell phones, and even toilets full of candy.  What middle school doesn’t love some good potty humor?

Having your convenience store convert to a candy store is an especially good idea if it’s located near a school or in a high-traffic neighborhood.  Of course, you’ll need to let people know about the changes you’ve made, so it’s important to deck out the inside and outside of your shop.

Make sure you have a colorful and bright atmosphere. People like to stick around and explore stores where they feel happy and positive.

Have large noticeable signage outside and inside your store to let people know your store is the place to be to find all the candy they’ve ever dreamed of.

Replacing your slow selling grocery items with much more in demand candy is a smart business move if you’re a convenience or corner store owner.