A sweet tooth is what lured Moustafa Badawi into the bulk candy
business. "I love candy myself, and as a father, we could
never pass by a candy store without my children stopping in,"
he says. "When I looked at how much we were spending, I
thought, `This is a great business.' "
That's when Badawi, 42, started researching distributors and
manufacturers and scouting out locations for a retail shop. He
landed a plum spot on a trendy Long Beach, California, shopping
street that has heavy foot traffic.
Although his store is still too new to predict annual sales
figures, Badawi says that since he opened Candy Land's doors
last November, hordes of customers have been plunking down an
average of $1.50 to $3 per sale for bags of the more than 175
different kinds of candy the store carries.
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In the land of candy stores, 175 kinds of candy is on the low
side: Many retailers stock more than 700 varieties of sweets. Dave
Ervin, owner of two Candy Express locations--one in Columbia, South
Carolina, and the other in the Charlotte-Douglas International
Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina--claims there are 10,000
different kinds of candy on the market.
Sounds like a lot of product to manage, but retailers freely
admit that operating a candy store isn't brain surgery. Badawi,
who also owns an art store, says, "Paintings and
art . . . you really have to sell that, but candy?
Candy sells itself."
The ease of operation is what led Joel Rosenberg to franchise
the Candy Express concept in the first place. The former owner of a
clothing store chain was considering opening a new location next to
a bulk candy store and thought to himself, "This looks a lot
easier than what we're doing." After testing the concept
in a local shopping center--with rave reviews--in 1990, Rosenberg
created the Columbia, Maryland-based Candy Express Inc. franchise
operation that boasts 40 U.S. locations and licensing agreements in
20 countries.
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