Sweet shop?
  • dion

    Are there any good sweet shops around here?

    I am trying to find a shop which sells penny sweets (do they still exist?). The cheapest sweets I can find are for 5p and they are quite large - not like flying saucers, and the cola bottles are 10p and are huge.

    My son's pocket money isn't managing to buy anything interesting...

  • Beek

    I think the Budget supermarket at the bottom of Crouch Hill - opposite the Old Dairy - they might? Although I'm not sure about the prices and sizes, but they have a good selection...

  • Ian

    Get him to save up and then go to M.A.H. brothers and buy a wholesale tub of them. It will teach him deferred gratification, the power of saving and the concept of profit as he can then sell on to his less patient friends...

  • Liz

    Or alternatively, buy the wholesale tub from MAH then sell them back to him on a weekly basis. One of my friend's mum's did this when I was in primary school - I've always thought it was a genius idea.

  • Colette

    Tesco has a penny sweets section...

  • dion

    Tesco - you have to put them in a bag and they get weighed at the checkout - quite tricky to get it right when you only have 25p to spend...

    And with such a small sum, even the weight of the bag is a marginal cost.

  • doctorlalloo
    aaah... penny sweets. I was telling Mrs L about the days when you could by half penny sweets.

    She didn't even know about half pennies, let alone half penny sweets.

    I know it's not local, but try Handy Candy you could get a decent amount for a couple of quid, and then let you son have a bit of variety.
  • doctorlalloo
    Actually forget Handy Candy - postage is £1.49 for 250g!
  • andy

    Cybercandy in Covent Garden is good for old-school penny chews like blackjacks and fruit salads. They also had Wham bars last time I went in.

    http://www.cybercandy.co.uk

    They have lots of US and Japanese import sweets, too.

    Writing this reminds me there is a full bag of Tangfastics in the glovebox of my car.

  • Misscara
    The 99p shop on Seven Sister's Road in Holloway does big bags of chews, lollies etc. You could get a few bags, mix them up and give him a few every week. I've also noticed some of the convenience shops do bags bags of sweets for 39p or 3 for £1.
  • checkski
    In my youth, you could buy a huge gobstopper for a farthing - a quarter of an old penny. It helped eke out the pocket money, which until my teens was only a penny for each year of my life - 10d, at the age of 10; = less than 5 new pence, as far as I remember. Unbelievable.

    Oh, and there was also rationing, for sweets, amongst other things, for several years after the war. You handed over your ration book with your money, and the shopkeeper would cut out a coupon. Perhaps Busby can tell us how it was in the war itself.
  • checkski
    PS. And pocket money was paid weekly, on a Saturday, for most of us.
  • Ali

    Cost Cutter has Sherbet Fountains

  • miss annie
    Again, not local but 'A Quarter of' is fabulous.
    http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/
    My nephew buys things once a fortnight from there and fleeces his buddies at school by selling them on, as they don't have a local sweetshop either!
  • Tallboy
    Does anybody remember Texan bars? I used to love them.
  • miss annie
    http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/texan-bars-texans-p-1139.html
    I miss Fry's Five Centres and Cabana bars
  • Jenowl
    We used to get a '10p mix' on the way home from school. Favourites were white mice, pink shrimps, traffic lights, drumstick lollys, coconut mushrooms.
  • doctorlalloo
    I used to get £1.00 pocket money in the 80's.

    but I never actually got the hard cash to spend how I liked, as my father used to run his sweet shop in a little village in Leicester.

    I could take whatever I wanted from the shop, then the price of the sweets was taken off my one pound weekly 'pocket money'.

    And no - I couldn't roll over any remaining money, or save up the coins to buy Star Wars figures.

    Nice one dad.
  • andy

    Your dad sounds ace. Well done son, here's your non-refundable, non-transferable store credit.

    I bet he charged you retail price as well, making a 30%-40% markup on your pocket money.

  • missisclack
    Checkski, I only used to used to get 10 (albeit new) pence, but in the 70s. So wasn't much better off.

    However, you could buy 3 mojos or 3 cola bottles for 1p and 2 blackjacks or 2 fruit salads for 1p, so I could make a little go a long way. Plus, if I'd been naughty and didn't get my pocket money (often), I'd just force my kid sister to share hers with me.

    My mum's freind used to come 'round once a week too and give me a very misjudged Fry's Turkish Delight. Bleugh. I was about 6! What I really wanted was a Texan bar
Add a Comment

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Apply for Membership

Categories

In this Discussion

Local Events: Next 7 days

(Calendar link)