Are sweet shops a big thing in England?

[-]

Nicktrains22@reddit

I love the traditional sweetshop in my hometown. It is the oldest surviving shop in the town centre and I make sure to go there even though they are a bit stingy on the weight of sweets they give you

[-]

Slight-Brush@reddit

There are dedicated sweet shops in tourist areas, both old-fashioned weighed out of jars type, and disgusting brightly-lit tax dodging American Candy Stores.

After school children go to the corner shop / Tesco Metro / Spar / Poundland for sweets

[-]

Gingers_got_no_soul@reddit

There's a sweetie/baccy shop in Perth B.A. Kerrigans) that I'm pretty sure is older than me. I think some are just relics from the past that have fortunately managed to survive into today.

P.S. They even sell real sugarmice!! Hard to come by these days

[-]

KeyAvocado2925@reddit

Pretty sure we had sugar pigs when I was a kid. That’s shrinkflation for you.

[-]

kalendral_42@reddit

There used to be a proper old fashioned sweatshop in Lambourn that we always got sugar mice from but it disappeared years ago

[-]

Gingers_got_no_soul@reddit

No wonder it's not there anymore, those are illegal!

[-]

SGTingles@reddit

I think the previous poster was making a joke about the typo that rendered "sweetshop" as "sweatshop" 😆

[-]

humanityisdyingfast@reddit

Ohhh I didn’t see that. Makes sense now!🤣

[-]

SilyLavage@reddit

The thought of a sugar mouse is always nicer than the mouse itself, I find. They're so very sweet

[-]

TheGeordieGal@reddit

I used to love sugar mice! Well, like you I loved the look of them. I’d get one and not particularly enjoy eating pure sugar.

[-]

Gingers_got_no_soul@reddit

True, I can only stomach the head. The rest is usually eaten over the next couple days

[-]

MorningSquare5882@reddit

Oh man I loved sugar mice as a kid! Probably why ihave so many fillings now tbh

[-]

My primary school use to have a sweet shop. Not quite a super old fashioned sweet shop it was more a news agents that sold ALOT of candy. You could buy ciggies and sweets by the gram. But the big sellers were the different mixes. They did 5p to £1 mixes and random tat kids get hyped for (like them aliens)

It was always rammed at the end of school but it ended up closing when i was in secondary.

[-]

Informal-Tour-8201@reddit

Ours was called a "Tuck Shop" in the 70s - very Famous Five (for a primary school in the Central Belt)

[-]

MidasToad@reddit

Where I'm from, a 'tuck shop' is the normal term for temporary snack stalls, especially ones operated by schools to sell snacks during school breaks. IME, these are usually a folding table with snacks spread out and hand-written price list.

[-]

HarketSavoy@reddit

American candy shops are quite popular in those tourist areas. Even at high prices.

[-]

Unhappy_Clue701@reddit

We have a branch of ‘Mr Simms Sweet Shop’ near us. I think it’s a chain - website suggests 60 branches. They have a wall of sweets in jars to be weighed out, as well as stands of other general sweetie type stuff. Doesn’t seem like a tax dodging place - it’s always clean and well kept, and the store is also a parcel delivery shop. We do have a lot of schools in the town, so presumably trade is good enough as it’s been there a while now (my own kids like a trip there sometimes too). So we n my experience, yes sweet shops are a thing, at least where I live.

[-]

veryblocky@reddit

Mr Simms is fairly reputable as far as I know, it falls into the first category the above commenter suggested.

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

What most kids called sweet shops when I was younger, were just local newsagents. They varied with some having huge selections of sweets and others just the usual stuff. It's not as common now but there are still places that keep a decent selection but rarely the big display of single things to choose from.

There's a few dedicated places like the chain of Mr Simms which does a kind of nostalgia, retro thing in a similar way.

It's all less of a thing than it used to be. My daughter and her friends now go for iced coffee after school 🤣

[-]

dwdwdan@reddit

And then there’s my old secondary school, where the custom was to go and get samosas on the way home

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

I can get behind that. I had to wait until university when I lived near a lot of Asian supermarkets, then samosa after lectures was a thing.

Anglo Indian family so it wasn't unheard of to have them at home anyway at least.

[-]

b135702@reddit

I used to love going to to the newsagents and getting a little bag of pick & mix after school :')

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

Yeah I'm just old enough to remember half penny pick and mix too. Used to love going after school for sweets.

[-]

OsotoViking@reddit

I've just now realised my local sweet shop was actually just a newsagent, not specifically a shop for children to buy sweets in. Childhood memory ruined.

[-]

Suspicious-Bug6588@reddit

There is a shop in my town which sells traditional, out-the-jar and weighed sweets.

It's also the local fireworks shop.

And they sell obscure brands of cigarettes and tobacco you never see elsewhere.

They also sell/cut custom sized foam?

And the prettiest gift cards.

It's a truly bizarre offering but there's a really nice vibe and the staff are so lovely.

I guess it's like, find a niche, but find ten niches to stay viable as a physical retail location in 2026 🤣

[-]

ShortFlamingo3409@reddit

They were. Now they're niche and expensive.

[-]

justeUnMec@reddit

Firstly, reminder that England is not a synonym for Britain.

By sweet shops, I think of a business that sells loose sweets that are in jars on the shelf that are weighed out by the person behind the counter into paper bags. When growing up in both the midlands and the north east of england and scotland, I was within walking distance of such places. Weird as it sounds now, they were often combined sweet shops and tobacconists. There was also self-service "pick n mix" in Woolworths which is fondly remembered. Thorntons chocolate shops also used to be very common and sold loose toffee and chocolates by the ounce.

Nowadays I'm in London and I've seen a few centrally. there is a scourge of garish "American candy stores" that are generally mocked as overpriced tourist traps and money laundering scams. Generally though traditional sweets are available in bags in the supermarkets and I guess this is where most people get them nowadays.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

Fair point about England/UK my apologies. Here in the states the two terms are used interchangeably

[-]

CursedCatLady@reddit

This map shows which countries are included in the UK, Great Britain, the British Isles and Ireland.

Can’t believe I actually remembered something from school geography lessons!

https://cdn.britannica.com/41/193441-050-13CCA6B5/Terminology-British-Isles-United-Kingdom-Ireland-Great.jpg

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

That's wrong, Great Britain is just the biggest island.

[-]

Indigo-Waterfall@reddit

That’s what the map says…? Are you confusing Great Britain and The British Isles?

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

No, the map includes lots of smaller islands as part of Great Britain, they are not.

[-]

Double-Use4816@reddit

Are you trying to say The Isle of Wight isnt in the Uk? Because...what?!

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

No, obviously not. It’s in the UK but not part of the island of Great Britain because it’s a separate island.

Northern Island is also in the UK but not part of Great Britain.

[-]

Tiny_Cauliflower_618@reddit

Ah, I think you are confusing the logic of geography with the facts of law.

Like, they're islands, but they don't piss about having their own separate laws and stuff, so they are just part of the mainland.

It's stupid lol, but if we started pointing out the stupid bits left over from all these centuries of mashing shit about, we'd still be here next year and not even have got to the bit about legally shooting Welsh guys with a bow and arrow yet.

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

Sharing laws doesn't make two islands into one island! Scotland and England don't share a legal system and they are still mostly on Great Britain.

[-]

CursedCatLady@reddit

Which is exactly what the map shows…

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

No it isn’t, the map includes lots of smaller islands in the ‘Great Britain’ loop. Anglesey, Isle of Wight, the Scottish islands etc, they are not part of Great Britain.

[-]

CursedCatLady@reddit

The ordnance survey begs to differ.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/whats-the-difference-between-uk-britain-and-british-isles

[-]

Nice_Back_9977@reddit

Huh, well I hate to disagree with them but I just can't accept that Orkney is part of Great Britain!

[-]

cctintwrweb@reddit

In fairness, it's amazing the amount of ( mostly English) Brits who get that stuff wrong and invent new terms as they go ..I'm in Northern Ireland and frequently hear mainland UK used by English people who don't realise they mean GB when they are trying to ignore NI . Or not offer the national services they claim to have .

[-]

TheGeordieGal@reddit

It’s as annoying here as if we were to say Iowa (fist state I thought of) in place of the whole US.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

To be fair we are not taught a lot about the UK, especially the years between 1815-1939. I do know a lot of my fellow Americans would rather have King Charles running the show instead of the current US president these days.

[-]

discoillusion01@reddit

Yeah you guys should stop doing that

[-]

Foreign_Emu_7943@reddit

Newsagents are usually sweet shops too

[-]

Hampshire-UK@reddit

So we have two main types of sweet shops here. Proper ones with sweets in jars that are weighed out etc and Candy Shops which has mainly imported wrapped sweets. The candy shops are, allegedly, a money laundering operation.

[-]

SUMMATMAN@reddit

Commenting to highlight this more - though there are a few money laundering American sweets shops around, traditional sweets shops are a thing too and usually popular with kids and adults albeit generally more as a special treat than after school. Can think of ones in Greenwich, York, Haworth, the peak district, Manchester, and Sheffield off hand, so leaning towards tourist areas but not just that.

[-]

ElwoodFenris27@reddit

Not entirely these days, you get the odd one in cities for tourism although my local one is awful and has barely anything in the shop anymore.
And there used to be some from news agents but tbh you can just go normal shops and buy sweets these days.

[-]

Player00000000@reddit

The local sweet shop is a thing of nostalgia because it's not the same as it was. Both the corner sweet shops local to me closed down. In the seventies and eighties when I was a kid the local newsagent kept probably 80 large transparent barrels of non packaged sweets of different kinds. I'd ask for a quarter of chocolate bon bons or a half (a pound) of anaseed twist and the shop assistant would weigh it out. Then there were the penny sweets. Refreshers were 2p, ,chocolate mice a penny etc. You could ask for as much as you could afford. All my pocket money went on sweets.

I think it started to change in the later part of the eighties as far as i recall when a large shop opened up on the main High Street called Sweetie where all the sweets came packaged up in bags at a set price. There was a lot more choice and at the time it was a bit of a revolution and I was excited by it but looking back it was probably the beginning of the end of the traditional sweet shop.

I still occasionally see a novelty old style shop selling barrels of sweets in the old style but its a rarity and I think the prices are a lot higher.

[-]

Open_Bumblebee_3033@reddit

They were big business.

[-]

tadpole-bear@reddit

After-school sweets from the newsagent/corner shop/Tesco express. Dedicated American candy store = weird money laundering tax evasion phenomenon.

[-]

InkandPage@reddit

What? Pls explain re American candy store

[-]

tadpole-bear@reddit

It’s a thing! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61777445

Normal sweetie purchases are just at whatever newsies or local supermarket, or Smiths if you’re at a train station (where you’ll get mugged on prices and mumbled at by a teen trying to upsell you £1 bottled water). No one goes to the candy stores. See also vape shops and weird dessert parlours.

[-]

Wild_Wolverine9526@reddit

Barbers too! I mean, all the ones near us seem to actually trade as a barbers, but there are at least 10 on a shirt section of a main road.

[-]

InkandPage@reddit

Wow. That's crazy. Can't say I am a bit surprised though, unfortunately

[-]

Scorpiodancer123@reddit

Unbelievably expensive sweet shop that's a front for tax dodging and money laundering.

[-]

TangoMikeOne@reddit

Some newsagents/tobacconists also have big jars full of boiled sweets and you'd go in there for ¼lb, 200g or however much you wanted of whatever (pear drops, shebert lemons, cola cubes, jelly babies, liquorice torpedoes, etc, etc - it's like a pick and mix, but better (at least for boomers and Gen Xers and others that grew up with visiting shops like that))

[-]

Which_Specific9891@reddit

I have an American friend who talked about certain US sweets and foods they miss. A US candy store opened in our town, and unaware it was a laundering thing, I went in, saw a couple items I remembered my friend mentioning, the prices were not unreasonable, and went to the till to purchase.

The panic on these people's faces were like wtf are you doing in here. They could not work the till. They had no idea how to work the till. They had no way to scan anything. The prices were not on the items. I'm guessing it was probably about £8-10 worth total.

The man at the till literally just looked at the other guy, and after whispering back and forth for a couple of minutes and trying to figure out what to do, he put it in a small bag and said have a good day.

I was like but I need to pay?

Guy was like HAVE. A. GOOD. DAY.

And pointed to the exit.

So I walked out with a bag full of sweets and food for my friend and the shop randomly disappeared about three weeks later.

[-]

poxelsaiyuri@reddit

My children always drag us into the American sweet shop when we are at the local shopping centre, we let them have one thing each (as they are stupidly expensive)

I won’t lie I do sometimes get some jelly belly beans as it’s the only place to get single flavours locally but they are much cheaper online

[-]

TheRealTabbyCool@reddit

There’s a traditional sweet shop near us that I used to pass on the way home from school. Sometimes I’d walk home instead of getting the bus (it took 2 buses to get home) so I could spend the bus fare on sweets instead! 😄

[-]

ThatFatGuyMJL@reddit

Theres three real kinds of sweet shops in the UK

you have the likes of Mr Simms, which is a genuine old fashions sweet shop

you have your locals, which tend to have a lot of snacks and sweets

then you have the 'American' sweet shops, which are money laundering sites.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

I have seen the money laundering thing pop up over and over. I assume if I’ve heard about it so have your local authorities. Have any been busted?

[-]

ThatFatGuyMJL@reddit

they crack down on them every now and then

[-]

Spiritual_Tie3348@reddit

They used to be lots of sweet shops, now they usually open as retro sweet shops that are expensive and don't survive.

[-]

slothliketendencies@reddit

My town is super boring with nothing touristy but has a traditional 'jar' sweet shop that has always been there and never closed down.

they also seem to be at most seaside/tourist type towns.

[-]

hereforthelols1999@reddit

We do have some “American” sweet shops and also old traditional British sweets shops with the sweets by weight and all the ones you’ve not seen in a long time. Love looking inside those ones

[-]

Upbeat_Branch_4231@reddit

We certainly did when I was young, fifty years ago. We do still have sweet shops. There's a pair owned by the same people in Winchester, they're not tourist traps, they serve local children and adults alike.

[-]

youdontknowmeyouknow@reddit

The sweet shop where I live has been open for decades. As in, pick’n’mix, jars of sweets to be measured out, handmade chocolate truffles in the window sweet shop. Expensive, but a local institution. Still like to pop in once in a while for rhubarb and custards.

[-]

Agitated_Display7573@reddit

There was a trend of old fashioned sweet shops about 10 years ago and they popped up in a lot of towns. Some of them are still around now

[-]

West_Inside_3112@reddit

Yes, our city also got 'ye Olde Sweet Shoppe' a decade ago, but that's gone :(. There is a shopfront of American sweet store that popped up in 3 locations since....

[-]

veryblocky@reddit

Yes, there are two main types. Your sort of old fashioned sweet shop with jars and stuff. And fronts.

[-]

Which_Specific9891@reddit

In my town there used to be an old fashioned sweetie shop with oversized jars that you would pick what you want, they would weight it out. They were here for something like 40 years.

They retired. It's a vape shop now, which is rather sad.

[-]

Green-Froyo-7533@reddit

Several that I know of some older some new. Not in a tourist location most of them. I make a point to visit one in particular who let my kids weigh out their own sweeties.

[-]

icebox_Lew@reddit

Going up my best mate's uncle and aunt ran a sweet shop that was on the way home from school. It was great as they'd spoil their nephew. Then said friend's parents took it over and were a lot less willing to let us have free sweets.

This would have been around 1997.

They did exist and I'm glad to see they still do. Can't imagine it's easy making a livable wage (after business expenses) selling weighed sweets to kids out of jars these days, though.

[-]

Either_Reality3687@reddit

My local sweatshop is un Washington and no not the one in America. There us a Washington in England.

[-]

icebox_Lew@reddit

That's in Sussex, right?

[-]

Queasy-Love-3496@reddit

They're not common and kids don't clamour there after school, however we do have a local traditional sweet shop that's been going 100+ years, Clough's in Newcastle.

[-]

StockholmGirl29@reddit

My kids go to the local Morrisons and More "mini market" to get their sweets. Pretty good selection. Current favourites are Nerds Clusters! I'm Swedish and we have a tradition called "Sweet Saturday" (Lördagsgodis) where kids can only have sweets once a week to stop them getting obese! You should see the sweet section in Stockholm supermarkets on Saturdays! Absolutely rammed! I've carried on the tradition here in the UK. We don't have any dedicated sweets shops in our town.

[-]

stoofa69@reddit

My Dad ran one from the 70’s right up to the early 2000’s. As well as sweets, he had over 100 jars that you would get weighed out. Near a local secondary school so we had 3 “rushes” a day when we were all on shoplifting watch. The real money however came from his multiple newspaper delivery rounds and greeting cards. I visited last year for the first time in over 20 years. Walking into his old shop and realising I had to pay for the first time since 1976 was weird

[-]

ERTCF53@reddit

Yes, everything is cheaper in b&m or home bargains, but it's the sweet shop experience and the happiness on your grandchild's face that you will not see in other stores

[-]

Goatsandducks@reddit

We had an old fashioned sweet shop in the town I grew up in and I would buy a pounds worth of sweets on my way home in a little pink and white striped paper bag. I did grow up in a popular market town in the Yorkshire Dales though so maybe a bit of both. It's still there and just as popular.

[-]

Mikon_Youji@reddit

It's the same over here these days. Sweets are only really found in stores. Sweet shops are a dime a dozen and are primarily for touristy areas.

[-]

BraveLordWilloughby@reddit

Real traditional sweet shops do exist, but they're few and far between. I was lucky to have one where I grew up (tiny market town) that had been opporating since 1863. Big row of jars sold by weight, penny sweets, as well as a decent selection of lesser known and foreign brands of chocolate, such as Ritter Sport.

The woman absolutely loved me. She was in her 80s and had terrible tremors. She was always chomping on a Ritter Sport, and always gave me a few blocks when I went in. Sometimes she'd open a fresh pack of a flavour I hadn't tried so I could taste it.

At Christmas she came to our door and gave me a big bag of Rosie Apples, bag of Cola Cubes, bag of Barley Sugar and a load of rainbow lollies, and a box of posh truffles for my parents who shed never met.

She must've gone out of her way to find out where I lived, as I never told her. It was only 2 minutes up the road mind.

Most sweet shops now are tacky "American Candy" shops, which are in cahoots with criminal enterprises.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

Aw that’s a really nice story!

[-]

One_Complex6429@reddit

Two small market towns near me. Both have traditional British sweet shops with jars on the shelves. Not American candy stores. Both shops have been there many years. Well before American sweet shops came here to launder money.👍

[-]

MzHmmz@reddit

Sweet shops used to be more of a "thing" when I was a kid, although they weren't necessarily dedicated sweet shops, often a newsagent, post office or small convenience store (typically a "corner shop", a very traditional type of British shop built at the end of a row of terraced houses) that had a wide range of sweets in big jars on the shelves behind the counter, sold by weight. In some shops they were sold as "penny sweets" where there was a selection of you could buy for one penny each (often sold self-service rather than from behind the counter). It's less common to find really good examples of this these days, but they do still exist, and some places will have at least a small selection of sweets available in jars behind the counter or a "pick and mix" self service selection.

When I was in secondary school we always took the route past our local post office, which served as our local sweet shop. I loved buying strawberry laces (hollow strawberry flavoured soft tubes) and drinking a cup of tea through them when I got home! I also liked Black Jacks, which are weird black aniseed flavoured chewy sweets, they're kind of the "marmite of the sweet world", one of those things a lot of people either love or hate!

As in America, the one place you definitely do find dedicated sweet shops is in tourist areas. Often they will lean heavily into the "traditional sweet shop" vibes, more like something from before WW2, and will sell very traditional or local sweets, and almost always things like sticks of rock (especially at the seaside) and (often locally made) toffee & fudge. A seaside sweet shop is definitely a very British institution, although depending on the type of seaside resort you are visiting you'll get very different types of experience! In more genteel areas you'll find some tasteful traditional shop selling a range of locally produced fudge alongside the obligatory sticks of rock, and neatly labelled jars of traditional sweets behind the counter, while in some places it will be some garish explosion of sweets designed to appeal to 7 year olds who have been given a couple of quid to spend on themselves without much adult guidance!

[-]

MzHmmz@reddit

I forgot to add, we do actually have a proper dedicated sweet shop not far from my house! The suburb just down the hill from where I live (more of a small town that was absorbed into the bigger city, really) is a fairly well-off area and has many of the traditional shops that have died off in some other areas, like a butcher, a bakery, and a sweet shop. It's only a small shop, but is probably the closest you get to a proper traditional sweet shop without it being a total "pastiche". The back walls are lined with lots of jars of sweets, and they do sell a lot of the traditional sweets, but they also sell many of the modern types that kids these days like to spend their pocket money on. It seems to be a fairly popular place for kids to stop off after school.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

When I was a kid my go/to movie theater trick was to bite the ends off Twizzlers (when they were still hollow) and use it as a straw for my Sprite.

[-]

Nutty-Frangipane@reddit

Not really, they used to be with glass jars behind the counter and you’d pick what you wanted by weight, but now they’re mostly a tourist or seaside town thing

We have a few ‘American candy’ shops but nobody here really likes American sweets over ours and they’re almost all money laundering fronts

[-]

MJLDat@reddit

I think this is the tenth comment I have read saying those American Candy stores are money laundering fronts.

It’s mad that we all know this to be true and yet they still operate.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

Weird to me that people would prefer American sweets. Your Bounty bar is so much better than our Mounds or Almond Joy

[-]

SGTingles@reddit

We're still getting over the collective desolation caused by Mars stopping making dark chocolate Bounty bars a couple of years ago, which are/were miles better than the milk chocolate ones 😞

[-]

Suitable-Fun-1087@reddit

It's more stuff like toxic waste, laffy taffy, and Mike & Ikes

[-]

dolphineclipse@reddit

I don't think anyone much goes to the American candy shops, except maybe American tourists - there's often a small section of American sweets in a big supermarket anyway, so that would be a cheaper way to buy them

[-]

MJLDat@reddit

No one really buys from there, it’s very overpriced, way more expensive than you would pay in the states. They all turne a good profit though, that’s where the laundering comes in.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

As an American I can firmly say our candy especially chocolate is mostly shitty and too sweet. It gonna lie though I wish they still made peanut butter Twix

[-]

TomatoChomper7@reddit

I think there was one local to me in the eighties. Since then, not really, other than in seaside towns or the odd specialty stores in city centres. Over the last decade or so, a lot of import sweet shops have popped up selling American candy and drinks. And there are a lot of dessert shops.

[-]

N64Andysaurus92@reddit

Big? No. Most people get their candy from the supermarket or local village convenience store/newsagent.

[-]

BrownCollie26@reddit

Really no, not any more. As you say over there, in tourist areas and seaside resorts you find them, and at fairs and festivals or local markets there will often be stalls selling sweet treats (at very high prices), but traditional high street sweet shops pretty much disappeared in the 80s I would say. There might be a few specialist exceptions, but no regular shops. We buy our sweets in the supermarket, along with everything else!

[-]

Tom_FooIery@reddit

Sweet shops aren’t as common as they used to be, but I live in a little village with a traditional sweet shop and love to go in and treat myself to a bag of sweets every now and then.

[-]

BlackberryNice1270@reddit

There aren't many dedicated sweet shops now, kids just get chocolate and things from ordinary shops. However, there's a shop where I grew up, Cloughs, that looks pretty much the same now as it did in the 1930's when it opened and sells over 300 types of sweets. It's currently run by the son of the original owners. The shop is tiny but the shelves with sweet jars on them go all the way to the ceiling. It's marvellous.

[-]

BlueFungus458@reddit

They used to be in every town (often being tobacconists as well) and you could get a “quarter” (4 oz) bag sweets.

[-]

GoldenAmmonite@reddit

Best sweet shop I've been to in Scotland is the Moffat Toffee shop.

[-]

Shnicketyshnick@reddit

My favourite local one closed last year after being owned by the same family since the 1890s. I wish I'd gone more regularly.

[-]

c_dug@reddit

When I went to Junior School in the 90s there was a traditional old sweet shop across the road from the main gates, it was old and ragged and had the appearance of a shop that hadn't been refurbished since the 60s. It shut down sometime around the Millennium.

I'm not sure any of the true traditional confectionery shops survived much longer than that.

My secondary school actually built a full blown sweet shop when I was in around year 9, I think it was abolished a few years later when they realised allowing teenagers unhindered access to tons of sugar at lunch time probably wasn't too smart.

These days there are modern recreations of traditional sweet shops in most shopping centres, but most kids would go to a corner shop or small supermarket (Sainsbury's Local and the like).

[-]

SnooDonuts6494@reddit

They used to be, until about the 70s and 80s.

There used to be one on every town high-street, and children would go with their pocket-money, often buying small amounts of loose sweets, weighed out from a jar into a little paper bag.

Now, they are practically non-existent - apart from a tiny few survivors, which are throwback museum-style shops mostly catering to tourists/visitors.

[-]

downandoutitis@reddit

https://oldestsweetshop.co.uk/

[-]

damapplespider@reddit

Was a great arithmetic lesson - working out the best way to spend your sweet money. The little newsagent near my gran’s had a glass topped counter with boxes of sweets underneath. Jelly snakes, flying saucers, refreshers and sugar cigarettes. 🙄

But a proper sweet shop could take ages to decide. There could be 100 big jars of sugary goodness. Pear drops or cola cubes, rhubarb & custard or humbugs, liquorice or strawberry laces. Ended up in one in Ryde last year which was nostalgic and showed me that they’re all way too sweet for me now.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

Pear drops and cola cubes sound and humbugs sound really cool

[-]

Slight-Reindeer-265@reddit

Where we live, we have a sweet shop! It’s lovely.

[-]

Xenozip3371Alpha@reddit

Used to be when I was a kid.

[-]

iamthefirebird@reddit

They used to be, I think. The ones that survive tend to have a more touristy-vintage aesthetic nowadays, but I still remember going to the local sweet shop to spend 20p on penny sweets. That's how my parents taught me and my sister about money and transactions. I'm not old, but the sweet shop experience used to be a lot more common, and it was always in large part for children. I'm not surprised that those children, now adults, feel nothing but fondness for the idea - to say nothing of the tourism angle.

[-]

AnneKnightley@reddit

Used to go to a small local newsagents after school for sweets - not sure what kids do now but something similar probably.

[-]

freebiscuit2002@reddit

There are fewer now than there used to be. Small, family owned stores have struggled to survive.

It was easier for sweet shops when school students mostly walked to and from school, because they'd usually stop in for things. Not so much nowadays.

[-]

thehoneybadger1223@reddit

It's less common now to see the old fashioned sweet shops where they are in jars and get weighed out when bought, but they still very much do exist.

It's more common for kids to nip into the local corner shop or co-op to buy sweets and stuff, there's more of them about. Kids do still go and get their fix of sugar before and after school. Here there are signs on some of the doors saying only 2 kids allowed in at a time and no scooters allowed etc.

[-]

Wolfdreama@reddit

The post office/general store in my village used to have a huge sweets selection. Lots and lots of tubs of all sorts that you could pick and mix. Always loads of kids in there after school.

[-]

AlarmingLifeguard144@reddit

I've not come across any really personally, except those american candy stores that are definitely fronts, I remember they used to be some 10-15 years ago though, maybe in coastal and more touristy areas they still exists but I mostly see sweet stalls rather than shops now

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

This one keeps popping up in my feed

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Ce9pGjQWa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[-]

PetersMapProject@reddit

That's the traditional legit variety of sweet shop

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

I want to try Everton Mints, pineapple rock and Rhubarb custard thanks to that account

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

Rhubarb & Custard is the best, I still get some occasionally.

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

Rhubarb flavored stuff is non existent here. Just rhubarb strawberry pies

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

There’s definitely quite a few around like this. Often in tourist areas and by the coast. Less common in your average town though.

[-]

Unable_Obligation_73@reddit

Money laundering apparently

[-]

AcadiaRemarkable6992@reddit (OP)

I’m glad this subreddit exists. I wouldnt have found out about the money laundering if I kept it to Google. I asked a question about Love, Actually in this group and I really learned a lot. Still not sure what Ladbaby is though

[-]

Otherwise-Eye-490@reddit

There’s a sweet shop in my town (Mr Sims…pretty sure it’s a chain) and it’s very popular. In fact I was in there an hour ago. It’s always busy.

[-]

noble_plebian@reddit

Yeah, we’ve got one of those. Always go there when I’m in town centre

[-]

weateallthepies@reddit

Yeah Mr Simms is all over the place. Seems to do quite well getting both kids and nostalgic parents in.

[-]

Repulsive_Dig_133@reddit

I dont think so anymore. Just money Laundering schemes now.

Growing up in Scotland in the 70s there were lots. The would have a vast array of jars behind the counter with all kinds of boiled sweets and your could buy a "quarter" and get them in a white paper bag. Sometimes run by Italian people, with maybe Ice cream or a Cafe too.

Sadly it seems like these kind of businesses are not viable now.

[-]

Full_Fun9829@reddit

You see the odd one but really it's pick and mix from a corner shop

[-]

Fantastic-Speech-438@reddit

Absolutely. There's still one that's over hundred years old near to where I grew up that's been run by the same family for generations. Just watch out for the weird American sweet shops in tourist areas as others have said (more a problem in London).

[-]

MattheqAC@reddit

You get a few, that really lean into the Victorian sweetshop aesthetic, I think they are more for gifts than casual snacks

[-]

JK_UKA@reddit

We do have an authentic sweet shop locally, but they’re very rare. You know it’s authentic as it’s only open 5 hours a day and closes on Monday whereas the fake sweet shop for tourists will be open all hours into the late evening

[-]

Internet-Dick-Joke@reddit

I mean, they are a thing but largely dying out, but no kids do not 'clamor' to them after school; most would be in the town/city centre, so out of the way for kids on their way home from school unless they have to pass through, and they're usually not the cheapest place to get most sweets.

It's more that people of all ages might pop in when they're in town and going past it, buy what they want, and then carry on with their day. Otherwise, most kids buy their sweets from the corner shop, the supermarket or from the likes of B&M, HomeBargains and Poundland.

[-]

Content-Activity-874@reddit

Brick and mortar ones are fantastic. I take a trip to a semi local one occasionally for my soor plooms. It’s also an ice cream shop.

The stuff I see my algorithm is overpriced. Most of them repackage and reset other sweets or just straight up resell. You want to make sure the company has a source that is a reputable candy maker not some factory crap.

[-]

TeamOfPups@reddit

Our corner shops (convenience stores) sell a huge variety of chocolate bars and pre-packaged bags of sweets, amongst other things.

My son will occasionally but sweets from a corner shop on his way home from school.

[-]

jesusbambino@reddit

I feel like in most urban, suburban and rural areas, kids are more often going to what’s called a corner shop - think of a small general/convenience store, similar to what you’d have at a gas station.