Confectionery store

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Freak Lunchbox candy store in Halifax, Nova Scotia

A confectionery store (more commonly referred to as a sweet shop in the United Kingdom or a candy store in the US) sells confectionery and is usually targeted to children or tourists in the modern retail world. Most confectioners are usually filled with an assortment of sweets far larger than a grocer or convenience store can accommodate, the selection is often nostalgic for many and sometimes overwhelming on the senses. Very often unchanged in layout since their inception, either because the stores are rare survivals in a competitive world or tourism aimed recreations, such stores have a warming and nostalgic feel with vast collections of sweets in jars, with sights and smells to trigger childhood memories.

[edit] History

An upscale candy store

The first chocolate sellers opened in the mid-seventeeth century in London, with an early example being White's, at first the great expense of chocolates allowed only the wealthiest to enjoy them, but they became increasingly within the economic reach of ordinary people as the years went on and the price of confectionery decreased. Some famous confectioners in the United States include Orne's Candy Store, which opened in 1885 in downtown Boothbay Harbor on the coast of Maine, and Fannie May Candies, which opened its first retail confectioners in Chicago in 1920.