Candy Show 2013

After three days of which I only walked the 22 or 23 isles of McCormick Place two of them,  I can definitely say that being the candy man is sweet. How many people can actually say that they get paid to sample candy and snacks.

Yes we (My wife and I) found some new products as we always do but before I get to our latest acquisition for the store while I was walking the floor I saw some interesting mascots so for my readers entertainments




OK I should be taller than Napoleon and I am not even sure what he or the silver people were selling. Honest Abe had pretty good popcorn and the Turtle well lots not discuss him his attorney may sue me.  Then there was some sort of princess my wife told me to take a picture with but I was afraid she would think that I was some sort of perv which after I expressed my concern my wife greed and we left her alone. 

Yes there was bad tasting product too -- I ask how do you ruin a potato chip not sure but I tasted the worst chip ever and I actually felt bad for the model in the booth because by the end of the show she looked sad and had lots of extra samples. And then there was the pizza candy I wish the lady who created the item and was working her booth the best but lets say you will not be seeing either of those products in our store.

So what is new for the store?

What is it? The Raindrops candy machine. This machine dispenses a candy that as the manufacturer states is  Tiny Tasty Chewy Sweets. Made with all natural colors and flavors.




Also watch for new items in our Allergy friendly corner of the store as well as some new sugar free items as well.

Lastly I must ask why do companies come to trade shows and are not setup to take orders?

Wish I new.

Have a sweet day!

Something for Everyone

It has been a while since the last post and like I have said before if do not have something exciting or new to write about I do not want to bore you so I don't. 

But I have an interesting story to recount so I figured why not sweeten everyones day.

As you you know we are proud that we specialize in indulgence and in particular life cycle events.


We offer chocolate * Tifilin  for Bnai Mitzvahs & chocolate crosses  for baptism but until recently that was it.

Then a few weeks ago a customer came into the store and asked if we had anything for a an Aqeeqah Celebration. My first question was what is an Aqeeqah Celebration. The customer explained that she was Muslin and that she was having a party for her new son. So being that try to inclusive and try so sweeten everyone's day we worked with the customer to create an Aqeeqah Celebration chocolate lollipop.

If world politics was as easy as chocolate the world might just be a sweeter place

Have a sweet day!







*Tefillin (also called phylacteries) are two small leather boxes that contain verses from the Torah.  They are worn on the head and on one arm and are held in place by leather straps. Observant men and boys who have had their Bar Mitzvah usually wear tefillin during the morning prayer services.  Women do not usually wear tefillin, though this practice is changing

What do sushi and camouflage have in common?

What do sushi and camouflage have in common?
This is not the beginnings of a bad joke but rather our getting ready for the holiday of Purim.

Purim is the Jewish holiday that retells the story of Mordecai, Queen Esther, King Achashverosh and Haman. Haman had plotted to destroy the Jews of Persia in 423 BCE yet with the help of G-D Haman failed.

 

The Holidays has several rituals:

• Giving charity
• Reading the Megillah on Purim which retells the story
• Enjoying a Purim Seudah or feast 
• Giving gift to two friends

The gift giving is how sushi and camouflage come together. People have taken the custom of gifting to new levels of creativity. So for our customer in Indianapolis who wanted chocolate sushi we created for her her very own Chocolate Marshmallow Sushi, and for the customer in Pittsburgh who is having an army themed Mishloach Manot so we ordered tank molds and are creating custom camouflage wrappers for her chocolate bars.  Let me not forget about the customer in New Jersey who is doing a movie night for her theme so we are making Movie Director's Clap Board Chocolate Lolly.    Lastly, our local Chicagoland customer who had a theme of the color purple.

These are just a few of the early orders we have taken.   So I ask the following ...   What is your theme?   Do you need help creating a theme?   Let me know.

The life of the candy man is sure sweet.

Have a sweet day!

Local Candy Store Helped Save 93 Lives



We closed out 2012 in a sweet and unique way, we helped save 93 lives. Yes with the help of our family, friends and customers we were able to collect 31 pints of blood making our fifth annual blood drive our most succesful blood drive to date. Hopefully we enhanced the holiday season for those recipients and their families.

To all my famliy, networking friends, and friends who supported our blood drive I say thank you.

To all the people in the neighborhood who saw the bus and stopped in I say thank you.

To  the WNBA Chicago Sky who sent the SKYGuy to support the drive I say thank you.

For those who were not able to attend  you can always go to a local LifeSource location and give them the code 146B that is the same as if you were on the bus. If you need to find a location near you click this link.

What better way to sweeten the new year than by giving the gift of life.

I hope that everyone has a happy, sweet and healthy New Year.

The life of the candy man really is sweet.

Have a sweet day!

Five Foot Chocolate Menorah

I know Chanukah is over but during the holiday season I was unable to blog because we were thankfully busy.

This year we had the oppotunity to do somehting truly unique, to create a five foot tall chocolate menorah.

So the story goes like this...

Several months back the Gurnee (a suburb of Chicago) Chabad Rabbi and his Wife came into the store. They wanted to know if we could we make a 5 foot tall chocolate menorah to light at their Chanukah party at the mall.

I of course said no problem.

Well it was not as easy as I thought but we were able to create a 5 foot tall menorah.

Take a look at the images.

Image courtesy of www.jshumanphotography.com



Image courtesy of www.jshumanphotography.com





Image courtesy of www.jshumanphotography.com

 After the Chanukah party I took the Chocolate Menorah apart and set it up in the store. This Chocolate Menorah will be a part of the store every year from now on.

Being the candy man is sweet.

Have a sweet day!

2012 World of Chocolate



For the last several years we have participated in the Aids Foundation World of Chocolate Gala. The event is lots of fun people eat lot of chocolate and it gives us an opportunity show off our creativity.

So this year for the World of Chocolate we actually created a World of Chocolate, a picture is worth a 1000 words .....

Have a sweet day!

Even Bad Publicity is a good thing

Sorry for the span between posts but if I don't have anything interesting to write I don't.

But here is an interesting story. About a month or so ago in Synagogue a gentleman came up to me and said something to the effect of " I was watching PBS the other night and all of a sudden your store was on the screen I was so excited for you did you know about it?

I answered honestly that I had no idea what he was talking about, but he went on to tell others about it which was great.

Then a few weeks later he called my Dad who called me to say the show was about to be rerun.

So I called a friend with a DVR and asked her to record it for me.

Here is how bad publicity is even good.

The show was "Architect Michael Grave a Grand Tour", sound good right.

In theory yes were people talking about it yes but when the show was talking about the form of architecture used to design the strip mail we are in right as they showed my store the narrator referred to this form as a joke?

Ouch

So tell me is our store a facade a joke? Perhaps before we branded it.

Not sure but at least people were talking about our store.

So even bad publicity is good when it comes to the life of the candy man.

Have a sweet day!