Tasty memories of favorite childhood candies are only a click away

By Sara Fulkerson

Whether it’s a neighbor’s basement or the local market, at the baseball diamond or in the ice cream man’s truck, it makes no difference to a child.

If you think your favorite candy is gone forever, think again. Just because you can’t find it at Wal-Mart doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, isn’t blowing bubbles with Big League Chew, munching on Bottle Caps or savoring the sizzling sensation of Pop Rocks on their tongue.

That’s right, you’re not the only one who misses the burn of Atomic Fireballs, the crunch of Candy Buttons and the sweetness of Mary Janes. Many long for a reunion with stretchy Sugar Daddies, wacky Wax Lips, and cool Candy Cigarettes. Childhood memories of favorite candies have created yet another niche in the candy market, allowing online and retail candy stores to reach into consumer pockets through their memories. “What we’re really selling is a box of memories,” said Scott Hughes, operations manager of GroovyCandies.com which supplies candy lovers with old time candies and a stroll down memory lane.

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We would go inside gas stations when our dad paid for gas, [my brother] and I would head to the candy aisle. Our favorite choice was Pop Rocks. I loved the strawberry, and I think he liked grape. Pouring some into our mouth, we would hold our mouths open and let them pop. I loved the tingle it made on my tongue. —Anya Britzius, ASU

Photo courtesy of freefoto.com
Americans eat an average of 20.7 pounds of candy per person each year. The Dutch eat three times as much.

Taste the memory
Hughes’ email is full of customer comments, memories and notes of gratitude. “Thank you,” wrote an admirer from Ontario. “I’ve never seen so much of my childhood on one website.”

Even while placing telephone orders, customers will wander into the past. “They’ll be dreaming out loud, sharing the memory,” said Hughes.

But why does candy stimulate such strong memories?

Maybe it’s “the pleasure of eating chocolates as a child, in a comfortable situation,” said Jay Braun, a retired Arizona State University professor, who studied smell and memories. “It turns out that chocolate works a lot like some pheromones do,” Braun said. “The chemical composition of chocolate actually triggers a dopamine release (in some people).”

That’s right. Some of the same reactions that make sex pleasurable could explain why some people love chocolate and other sweets so much.

According to Hughes, Groovycandies.com was the first online company to cater to the nostalgic cravings of candy consumers by packaging boxes by decades. These products, which include: The 60s Groovy Candy Sampler, the 70s Happy Candy Grab Bag, and the 80s Totally Awesome Candy Sampler, can stir sugar memories regardless of when you grew up. The truth is you probably enjoyed some of your parents’ favorite childhood candies too. If that’s the case, the comprehensive Sugar Memories of the 50s, 60s and 70s may be the best way to get what you want.

Still, the pre-packaged boxes may not include all that you would have hoped. The website warns that the contents of the package are based on availability.

“I’m at the mercy of the candy companies,” Hughes said. Some candies aren’t manufactured consistently enough to be guaranteed in stock. Less popular and seasonal candies are made mainly during the money-making holidays: Halloween, Christmas, Valentines and Easter.

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I remember as a kid in New Jersey, my cousin Nicole and I used to stock up on Candy Cigarettes. The only time I was able to get ahold of them was when I went over to her house because the ice cream man in her neighborhood sold them. —Jackie Chedid, ASU

The candy factories
According to a survey published in The Manufacturing Confectioner, candy retail sales figures collected from large grocery, chain and mass merchandise stores in 2004 alone exceeded $7 billion, and that didn’t include Wal-Mart. Nonetheless, many brands suffer at the hands of mergers and acquisitions.

“It’s kind of a double-edge sword,” said Eric Atkinson, president of Atkinson Candy Co. in Texas, which manufactures Chick-O-Sticks and other old-fashioned candies. “If a large company buys a smaller one, the larger company has a larger advertising support.” More advertising translates into attention and sales for brands that may not have been in the bigger stores for quite sometime.

On the other hand, when a company acquires brands that will never achieve mainstream popularity, it will choose which brands to continue and which to stop producing. Large companies drop products that do not generate a lot of revenue regardless of the people who have been purchasing them for years.

“It’s purely a function of dollars,” said Atkinson. Aside from mergers and acquisitions, staying in a business that is becoming increasingly automated for efficiency has become difficult for the little guy.

“Although it’s a turbulent time for confectioners all over the country, it’s our job to stay here and have these things that remind us of the past,” said Atkinson, a third-generation candy-maker. “It’s personal to us. Our name goes on every bar we make.”

“It’s quality candy. It’s exactly the way it was when my grand pappy made it,” said Atkinson. “That’s why it’s important that the family that started [the brand] stays with it. That’s what seems to work.”

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I used to be absolutely IN LOVE with the gum that had the liquid centers. I used to eat them like candy, and I suppose that swallowing a pack a day isn’t healthy. It used to come in tropical fruit flavor. Now they only have Freshen-up in mint flavor. Eww. —Kristin Curry, ASU

Vanishing acts
Of course, even if a family sticks with a name for years, that’s still no guarantee for success. It’s hard for the little guys to sell to the big guys—the grocery, chain and mass merchandise stores.

“They need products to turn—sell well,” Hughes said. “These candies will sell, but they won’t sell like a Milky Way.”

Most grocery stores will, however, special-order candies and other items for you, said Nancie Dodge of Scottsdale. Of course, it can take weeks for special orders to come though, and you may have to purchase your order by the case. Some stores will stock certain items though, making them available for individual purchase. Dodge said that she’s ordered items which have been stocked only temporarily, requiring her to request them again. She claims that trying to find the candy she loves is practically full-time job these days.

So why does she do it?

“[It’s] partially the taste, partially the memory,” said Dodge. “It’s all about me being a kid and getting the things that I really like.”

Growing up in upstate New York, Dodge would ride her bicycle a mile to the deli to buy Necco Wafers, Mallo Cups and Wax Bottles. There was a grocery store a few doors down, but she preferred the deli.

“It was the ambiance,” said Dodge. “There was no ambiance at a grocery store.”

Today she is ecstatic when she finds her favorite candies in places you wouldn’t normally think to look. Michael’s, the craft store, and Danny’s Car Wash are local places that have carried some of her favorites, like Sky Bars.

“If you go to one of the smaller towns in Arizona,” said Dodge, “usually they’ll have a local place that’s been around for a while. They’ll have [nostalgic candy] too.”

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There was a small market about five miles away from my house. My sister and I used to ride our bikes there at least twice a week in the summer. We raided the aisles of all the 5-cent candies, Atomic Fireballs being our favorite. I don’t think any of us actually liked the taste, but it was always fun to have contests to see who could keep them in their mouths the longest. I’m still surprised none of us choked to death riding home with our mouths full of them. —Lindsey Gay, ASU

The candy store
Whether it’s a neighbor’s basement, the local market, at the baseball diamond or in the ice cream man’s truck, it makes no difference to a child. The candy store is in a grandparent’s closet as long as it supplies you with sugar fuel.

It doesn’t matter where the money comes from either, at 8, 9, or 10 years of age you can guiltlessly spend every last cent earned from mowing lawns, babysitting or just rummaging through couch cushions. Even if you’re new to the neighborhood, as a kid, you know where to find the candy. If you can’t get a ride, you walk or ride your bicycle, with the happy jingle of pocket change promising a delightful trip.

Buying candy brings out the kid in anyone, and Fuzziwig’s Candy Factory is no exception. A string of customers weaves through the horseshoe-shaped store, the hustle of mall shopping momentarily forgotten: moms bribing children, just one more store, teenagers purchasing by the pound, and the occasional child emerging from the memories of adults not willing to give their age.

“We jog a lot of people’s memories,” said Hasu Patel, owner of two of the five Phoenix-area Fuzziwig’s. In addition to today’s popular candies and bulk chocolates, these franchised stores stock old-fashioned candy varieties. Next to the newer, shiny candy wrappers, the older designs and logos may appear dull, but it only takes a glance to charge the memory and give new life to the candies.

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I was in class one day in the middle school, and my life, in a sense, passed before my eyes. I had a Pepsi and Pop Rocks, and my friend ran to me to tell me that if I drank the Pepsi and ate the Pop Rocks together, my stomach would explode. I quickly disposed of the Pepsi in fear I would die. Later I realized that it was a hoax. And to think I just threw away a perfectly good Pepsi! —Sarah Ellis, ASU

Golden candies
New life, however, comes at a price.

Dodge remembers paying 5 cents for a candy bar, Patel recalls 25 cents as going a long way, but even a couple strips of paper with colorful candy dots will cost you almost $2 these days.

“We try to be quite reasonable about [our prices],” said Robert Steven, founder of Classic Candies in Apache Junction, which also sells nostalgic candy sticks and Beemans gum among other things. It’s difficult though, stores are at the mercy of their suppliers who are at the mercy of the manufacturers. We’re at the mercy of them all.

In some sense, Steven has been able to get around part of the middle-man prices by making his own chocolates and other candies from old family recipes. “It’s kind of faded away,” said Steven of the homemade candy industry. “I think that nobody wanted to learn the trade. It hasn’t been easy. People seem to go for the factory-manufactured stuff.”

Occasionally, you’ll meet someone who won’t go for anything though, homemade or manufactured. In our ever-slimming society, it could be considered a stroke of luck to lack a sweet tooth. Some of us would like to have ours pulled before our real teeth rot out.

So, what about the health issues associated with candy consumption? Dental bills and weight loss plans can add up, but whatever happened to being young at heart? Can candy help you live longer? That’s what researchers have found.

“Men who indulged (in candy) lived almost a year longer, up to age 95, than did abstainers,” according to the 1998 study, published in the British Medical Journal. Unfortunately for sweet-addicts, the study did not show that increasing candy consumption results in a longer life. “As with most things in life, moderation seems to be paramount.”

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In elementary school, our carpool driver stopped at the convenience store to let us all load up on snacks. I always got a mix cherry Coke ice and a pack of Big League Chew. My jaw always got sore from stuffing nearly the entire package in my mouth and chewing. —Cassie McConnell, ASU

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Candy in moderation? Think again.

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