Originally published at: Reviews of the candy stores on Oxford Street, London | Boing Boing
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Hmmm, I owned a swanky central london retail operation 1/2 mile away for 12 years. Its is unlikely their turnover based on unit value would ever meet a) rent or b) business rates for what is one of the most expensive retail strips in the western world. Its a bit like the tourist shops selling plastic policemans hats and faded postcards. I knew several estate agents who were like, meh - gangs, everyone knows it.
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In the UK, it’s only a matter of time before these criminals with a sweet tooth go to war.
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yep, I was in Piccadilly. Spot on.
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Came to say similar - Private Eye has run more than one story recently about this apparent candy store scam. They keep opening and then the companies fold and new ones start up and so on and so on.
The Eye will keep on this one, I suspect.
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As an American tourist, I visited with a busload in the mid-2010s. At numerous schlocky stops, there were bulk food-like candy displays where you could fill a commemorative bucket with any type of candy you wanted, by the scoop, for a flat fee by weight. We loaded up a couple buckets and were set for snacks for the rest of the trip. There’s nothing like that in the US, so this seems like an extension/expansion of that phenom.
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There is a wonderful film based on it too!
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That’s how I first learned about it. Bill Forsyth is a Scottish national treasure.
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Is there a more depressing major shopping street anywhere in the World than Oxford Street? No matter how prestigious the brand, the whole drag is unrelentingly tacky and desperate.
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Sounds a lot like Dylan’s Candy Bar stores in major US cities, which includes a number of bulk bin sections such as this:
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Yes, very similar, but not just Jelly Belly, and Dylan’s is only in NY, CA, HI, and airports. What I encountered in the UK was commonplace generic gift shop displays at most tourist traps rather than specialty stores.
This section from Dylan’s is a closer match:
As an American who has lived in both the U.S. and the U.K., British sweets are, on the whole, far superior to the American junk. If these are indeed money-laundering operations, they really should have picked something a little more convincing for their front.
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As far as money laundering in the UK goes, this is small potatoes no matter their turnover. You’ve got to go to the Square Mile for the real stuff.
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Clusters of similar stores are not inherently suspicious as suggested in the piece, it turns out. This happens a lot, and as usual, Planet Money has the take:
I swear I am unaffiliated with Planet Money but I end up constantly posting their links on BB. They just always have excellent coverage of topics that come up here. 
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head to costal tourist towns - either coast. there’s generally a few. all the shops are empty - candy or no - in the off season. the ups and downs of those businesses must be wild
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You don’t say?
Dylan’s used to be in additional major cities as well – Chicago being an example – but clearly discovered that the net return was better in airport settings.
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Bulk candy is pretty common in the US. There are even vending machines that do it in movie theaters these days. Very, very common in tourist spots and beach side boardwalks, resort towns and amusement parks.
The sort of flat rate for whatever candy is called “pick n mix” and it’s less common but still a thing. usually at more independent places. Seems to be the thing in the Midwest.
Yeah that was the first thing that came to mind from the article. Also occupying some of the worlds most expensive real estate, and owned by Ralph Lauren’s daughter.
They’ve been pretty carefully placed in expensive/high end but high foot traffic tourist destinations and particular airports. It looks like a lot of their non-Airport locations these days are in resorts and shit. They seem to have opened a location in East Hampton, New York. Which is a deep money tourist trap. But otherwise in the middle of nowhere.
There’s surprising money in selling candy to captive audiences. I can’t imagine the margins are very good, but if you’ve got 50k people passing through a day that probably doesn’t matter much.
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Two words: horizontal dancing.
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