Cleveland Is Home To The Largest Candy Store In The US
If you're looking for the largest candy store in the U.S., then you're going to have to take a trip to Cleveland, Ohio. There, you'll find b.a. Sweetie Candy Co., which calls itself the biggest candy store in, not only the country, but the entire North American continent. Further, it claims to have the largest variety of candy in the entire world. So, just how big is it, anyway? Well, b.a. Sweetie Candy Co. is a 40,000-square-foot warehouse full of towering aisles of candy — over 4,500 unique items, to be exact.
Its inventory values around $3 million — that's a whole lot of money in the form of candy. As for what types of sweets you'll find in the store, the answer is, well, just about any candy you can imagine and then some. On the b.a. Sweeties' website, the company boasts that the store carries a wealth of "nostalgic candy" — aka candy that you may have enjoyed in your childhood that you thought wasn't made anymore. In fact, b.a. Sweetie Candy Co. goes out of its way to look for hard-to-find candy in order to bring it into its stores to sell to candy lovers. Some of these hard-to-find items include Bonomo Turkish Taffy and Broadway licorice rolls.
Of course, the store is also stocked with all the classic candies you'd find in a kid's Halloween bag. To go along with the sweet treats, you can also find 300 varieties of soda to fulfill your sweet tooth in a different way. The company also sells candy wholesale for other businesses to buy.
The history of b.a. Sweetie Candy Co. — and how it's doing today
The owner of b.a. Sweetie Candy Co., Thomas Scheiman, bought a wholesale company called Bag-A-Sweet Candy Co. in 1982, then changed the name to what we know the store as today. Scheiman had effectively grown up in the candy business, having worked in his grandfather's Italian food store as an adolescent during summer breaks — his job was, you guessed it, to stock candy.
After buying the company, Scheiman began by opening up 11 candy stores simultaneously to get his business off the ground. Then, in 2012, he bought the warehouse that would become the ultra-large and expansive but still old-fashioned candy store that it is today. The company has since moved beyond just the one mega store — there's now an adjoining soda bar, aptly named Sweeties Soda Shoppe, as well as three other branches, including one in Arizona. There's even a Sweeties Golfland Park where candy lovers can indulge in some mini golf.
Scheiman told Ohio Magazine in an interview that wholesale distribution is where the company makes the most money, but there are still quite a lot of individuals who come in on their own looking to buy themselves some candy. In 2022, b.a. Sweetie Candy Co. saw an influx of a whopping 500,000 visitors.