The Department Store Candy Counter You Probably Forgot About

Department stores today may be synonymous with overpriced merchandise and empty, winding aisles, but back in their prime, you could buy just about anything. Fancy dresses for your cousin's wedding, bed sheets for the guest room, and a brand new six-piece set of pots and pans for your neighbor? Yep, available all at one store. Other than selling mail-order homes and elegant dinnerware, people tend to forget that Sears also had a pretty popular candy counter.

Long before any Sears locations had a department store restaurant, the retailer had a famous candy counter that used to sell bulk confections by weight. That counter was perhaps every child's favorite excuse to join their parents on a trip to the gigantic department store. "Every time we went to Sears, first stop [was] the candy counter," said one reminiscent user on Facebook. Another Reddit user said they remember that their "dad would ALWAYS get [them] those chocolate stars with the white sprinkles at the Sears candy counter," lamenting on the good ol' days.

The candy counters at Sears were situated in different departments, depending on the store, but all were arranged as glass counters with a wide variety of candies and a friendly cashier ready to measure any number of confections. Customers remember buying Swedish Fish, chocolates, peanut candies, licorice, hard candies, and soft candies, too. Sears was also well-known for selling warm nuts and popcorn beside the candy counter — a fitting arrangement, considering that popcorn was sometimes eaten as a breakfast cereal way back in the day.

Sears often advertised the sweet treats at its candy counter, which popped up in the department stores during the 1950s. Many people remember it fondly throughout the next few decades, such as one former candy counter employee from the '70s who said on Facebook that they "had the most fun of any job" ever. Despite its popularity, supposed shifts in the company's business model meant that sometime in the 1980s, Sears began to phase out the candy counters, which prompted one Reddit user to claim that "the '80s were lesser because of it." You won't find a bulk candy counter at any of the remaining, modern-day Sears department stores, though you may have better luck at one of these grocery store chains with impressive candy aisles.