Online Sweet Shop
 
Where was your favourite spot when you were a child? Where did you like hanging out? For many of us, the cool, dark, rustling interior of the nearest local sweet shop was the place to be, especially if you had a few jingling coppers in your pocket to dole out in exchange for a tasty treat or two. Picking along the jars and tubs, eyeing up the bright candy, selecting your little plastic scoop – what a way to spend your days! Even a local news agent could be a great place to pop into for the odd sweet, for bubblegum or lollies to go with Saturday morning comics. Ah, childhood! Where did the years go?
 
Can an online sweet shop ever compare with that? Well, we aren’t going to pretend that it’s the same thing at all – because it’s not. An online sweet shop can’t quite summon up the scents and sounds and tastes of a tiny corner shop with a busy shopkeeper and jangly bell. That said, there are so many things an online sweet shop is which a real shop isn’t, and the great news is, we can have both! These online shops are a wonderful way to bring back the magic of childhood from the comfort of your sofa; you can browse through Black Jacks and Bubblegums and Candy Necklaces to your heart’s content. To be honest, we can’t think of many nicer ways to spend a few hours online than browsing retro sweets – though you might want to have a packet of biscuits to hand to stave off the cravings while you choose your goodies and wait for the post. Thank goodness for our fast UK delivery!
 


There are some really good reasons to choose online shopping when it comes to sweets. For starters, buying online has the massive advantage of giving you far more choice than even the most ambitious local shopkeeper could manage. No matter what you’re looking for, you’ve got a much better chance of finding it if you’re browsing online, and you can check out all the different shops and prices. There are lots of sweet hampers and individual sweets, options to pick and choose and mix and match with almost as much flexibility as if you were standing right in front of the jars – and sometimes more, given the increased amount of choice. You can even brush up on your history if you’re interested – most sites will offer you a bit of information about the sweets you’re looking at, and if not, Google is always a great way forwards. Finding out when your favourite treat was invented and who by adds a nice little extra flavour to it.
 
You’ll also find ingredients lists readily available, and you can check out anything you don’t recognise with just the touch of a few keys. It’s nice to have that much control over what you (and perhaps your children) are eating. It’s also nice and easy to search by category. Need gluten free? No problem; almost every online sweet shop will have a category for that. Vegan? Vegetarian? Hit the button and go crazy! This flexibility is so useful if you’re shopping for someone else and you aren’t sure what they need. Equally, if you know exactly what you want, you can look at everything in that category. Want to browse by boiled sweets? Sherbet sweets? Jelly sweets? Chocolate? Go ahead with it!
 
There’s also no pressure from other customers or the shopkeeper. It can be hard to choose when it comes to sweets, so nobody’s going to blame you if you want to spend an hour deliberating or consider different combinations. Not an issue when shopping online – there are no other customers behind you in the line, no shopkeeper waiting for a decision. You can change your mind a hundred times over, and you’re not going to be putting anyone out! You don’t have to buy something that’s been doled out that you’ve suddenly realised you don’t want – right up to the checkout, you can add or remove things from your shopping cart. Flexibility at its peak!
 
An online sweet shop is a wonderful place to spend time rediscovering old favourites. You might find long-forgotten treasures or things you thought they’d stopped making years ago. If you haven’t already tried googling your favourite childhood treat, it might be worth a shot – a lot have made comebacks in recent years, as the trend towards retro sweets increases. Liquorice Whips, WHAM bars, Cola Bottles, Dip Dabs, Parma Violets, Midget Gems, Caramac – are you drooling yet? We are. The online sweet shop may not be able to recreate the rustle of wrappers and the clink of change, but it can help you revisit the past in a way that no corner shop can.
 
These shops can be just as quirky and personal as your little local store. Most of them are run by little businesses, often ones which have an actual location as well. The people behind them have as much passion and energy as your local shopkeeper. You can even access the personal touch, with many online sweet shops offering personalised jars, little messages, and other tokens to make things feel wonderfully individual. Whether you’re buying for yourself or for a loved one, you can add all those little twists of uniqueness that make sweets special.
 
If you’re trying to introduce a younger clientele to the wonders of retro sweets (such as your kids or grandkids, perhaps!), online sweet shopping can be a great way to do it. It brings the old and the new together, and they can read about the different sweets and check out what other people think of them. This is also a great way to do sweets for parties or class celebrations; you can just order a great big hamper and have a wonderful mix of interesting, unique sweets to excite the kids. All the best bits with none of the effort; you’ll get a fantastic variety without having to pick up 40 different packets and end up with loads leftover. You’ll also have all the ingredients in one easy-to-read list, which is ideal if you need to cater for allergens. We also feel this is so much more exciting and interesting for kids than a stack of Mars bars or some chocolate chip cookies – these are sweets that will excite them.
 
There’s no question that old school sweets are back with a vengeance in today’s world, and the online sweet shop definitely has its place in that. It marries the old with the new, bringing flexibility and even more variety to the varied world of retro candy. What is lacking in atmosphere is more than made up for in convenience, adaptability, and options. Online sweet shops are the perfect way to shop in our opinion – and they’re clearly here to stay.