Candy man brings sweetness to Tanger Outlets

TILTON — Steve Jackson is a candy man. He has peddled sweet stuff all of his working life, most recently as the owner of a distribution company that keeps ski areas and attractions stocked with treats. This spring, when the ski areas closed early and attractions opened late, he found himself bored, so he kept himself busy by planning a retail store.

The result is Sweetz and More, the newest addition to the Tanger Outlet Center, which Jackson said proves that some things are pandemic-proof.

“98% of the population eat candy, the other 2% cheat,” he said.

Sweetz and More isn’t Jackson’s first candy store. He has opened three others in the past. This is the biggest hit, though. He attributes that to the location, and to the variety he has in his store.

“Candy is an impulse item,” he said. For the most part, people don’t leave their home to buy candy. Instead, they buy candy when they happen upon something that tempts them. “I felt that if I could locate a store where there were people, I could be successful. I knew that people wouldn’t come to Tanger specifically because of the candy store, but if they were here and they saw a candy store, they would check it out,” Jackson said.

Those who do will encounter a cornucopia of candy. He said he has nearly 3,000 items in the shop, including items sold by the piece, in bulk or by the pound. There are 24 varieties of ice cream, 380 different sodas, and, of course, lots and lots of candy.

Jackson stocks the contemporary mainstream favorites – Snickers, Reese’s, Three Musketeers – but it’s the odd, old-fashioned or imported candies that make his customers smile, he said. Nostalgia is a huge driver of candy purchases, he said.

“Where people have the most fun is seeing the products,” that remind them of a place, person or experience from their past, he said. “People get really excited when they see them here.”

“There’s 2,900 SKUs in this store, it’s all re-packaged sugar,” Jackson said. But if that sugar is shaped, colored, textured and flavored in just the right way, it can trigger joy.

Sweetz and More, open since mid-October, has had just over 10,000 sales, Jackson said. The best-selling item so far has been chocolate-covered gummy bears, followed by nonpareil chocolate wafers, then regular gummy bears, chocolate covered pretzels, fruit slices, then wax soda bottles, and in tenth place, “Flying Saucers,” which Jackson described as, “little communion wafers with the candy inside. They’re the oldest candy in America.”

Jackson said he’s been through tough times before, and has found it’s good to be a candy man.

“Candy will sell in any economy. If the economy is good, they’ll splurge on themselves. If the economy is bad, they’ll splurge on themselves instead of buying something more expensive,” he said.

With the early success of his latest retail venture, Jackson said he’s considering an option to open a second location of Sweetz and More.

“It will be interesting to see where this goes,” he said. “My personal motto, my whole life, is working hard to make the world a sweeter place.”