Suckers Candy

They’ve closed.

This is a reminder for me to stop buying Groupons and LivingSocials for small, little businesses. Sometimes I have great luck and find a new favorite place. In this case however, I took a 1.5 ride to Damen and Roscoe. This was this past Monday when the CTA decided to shut down the L’s for about 6 hours. When I got to Suckers Candy to find out they are CLOSED on Mondays. Mondays? What is this a Chinese restaurant??? According to the sign on the door, they also close at 5pm. UGH! A LivingSocial wasted and hours of my time trying to get here after work. Not worth the trip.

Suckers is certainly a charming, quaint throwback to the neighborhood candy shop. Unfortunately, they seem to be perpetually out of stock on what I am looking for on that day. Whether its stick candy, a particular flavor of gum or whatever, they seem to be out of 2 out of 3 of my choices. This is the place to go if you like gummy candy, though.

Hello, Mary Janes, Astro Pops, and Flying Saucers! What?!? Am I five again?!? Talk about being in candy heaven. If you are in the mood for wrapped treats, you can choose anything from Laffy Taffy to Caramel Apple suckers. If wrapped treats do not tickle your fancy, you can always go bulk and get some Gummi Bears, Swedish Fish, and Gummi Worms.
I was so overwhelmed, one of the workers came over to assist me and she was so patient. I found out that they sell fresh chocolates too,;but make sure it is not too hot outside, so the tiny pieces of heavenly goodness do not get ruined. How great is that?!?
Whenever I am in the mood for a flashback to my past and some tasty, sugary snacks, I am will make sure to swing by Suckers Candy again!

The storefront is a bit small, but unmistakeable: When it is opened, a giant penguin is diplayed out front.
The selection of candy is broad and nostalgic!
A great addition to the Roscoe Village neighborhood!

I bought the groupon last year for Suckers. I finally went and I have to say I had to find items to buy. its cute for sure, but I went there to purchase fudge for the holidays and I was told they dont make fudge in the winter. ??? really? no fudge in the winter? She knew I had the groupon.
I will always go to Windy City for something like this, so much more to offer as far as candy fudge and gift ideas.

It doesn’t matter how old you are… something about a candy store makes you feel like a kid again! My mom and I walked by Suckers, took one look at each other and raced in for some sugar.
We went to town filling up bags with gummies (so many choices!) and licorice! It’s a very small store, but it’s packed with all sorts of candy. And it has that old fashioned feel that I love.
I obviously didn’t learn my lesson as a kid that too much candy isn’t good for you because I ended up with a stomachache a few hrs later, but it was worth it!

Let’s start off with I’m a sucker for candy. (he-​he-​he)
I got a groupon for this shop but low and behold, it expired. So I showed up a day after the groupon since I still wanted to try and get my deal. I have a sweet smile so I was hoping that would be enough to get my $ 20 in candy. Well, it wasn’t. The shop was pretty much cleaned out. It’s a small shop so that is pretty easy to happen I would think.
The shoppe ladies were busy replenishing all the candies and I wandered in there hoping to catch a break. Well, I sort of did. They gave me the face value of my expired groupon which I thought was pretty cool. The problem was finding stuff that cost less than $ 10! I got a couple of pieces of chocolate and some candy and my bill was way above that amount. I’m fine with it though since chocolate is worth gold in some civilizations so, I think I did OK. Hubby was happy with his little package of sweets. Though, I still may be bitter that I didn’t get to use the entire $ 20 value. That’s my own fault though. Next time, I’m putting a reminder in my iPod.
I really like the penguin. He and I took photos together. I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope to go back again.

Champagne strawberry gummy bears, yeah you heard right. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the flavor is. It was like the only jar without a label and I neglected to ask the lady as I was distracted, OBVIOUSLY.
Anyhow, they are a light orange/​yellow gummy bears with a little red in the middle, it’s definitely not peach and when you open the jar you’re overcome with the scent of champagne and strawberries.
As soon as you walk in here you’re literally a kid in a magical candy store. It’s not that crapbag bulk candy store in your mall, no this place is freaking adorable, pink and colorful, like Mary Poppins exploded into an old-​school candy shoppe. (If it’s old school you gotta spell like it is). There are jars upon jars of various gummy delights, taffy, licorice, chocolates and even chocolate dipped gummy bears.
Oh yes. These chocolate covered gummy bears are light and soft, the perfect ratio of chocolate to gummy — it’s science, I know.
There are also chocolate dipped pretzels here, we tried the caramel-​chocolate dipped pretzel and OMG, it was a mistake getting just one. Everything was very reasonably priced, you’re not gonna go broke satisfying your sweet tooth fix here. Ugh! They even have specialty candies and a great assortment of the sour stuff. Love love it.

The phrase «kid in a candy store,» yeah that applies to me. Despite being of an age that used to be at the very top of the hill (though not yet over it), if you put me in a candy store I revert to my A.D.D. ridden, 6-​year old self. Except without the screaming or throwing things. I had to maintain some decorum, even if inside I wanted to do those things.
In fact here’s a (relatively «accurate») reenactment of my time inside Suckers Candy using the recent Groupon:
«Big League Chew… oh my fate… wait…Bubble Tape… wait…I need these Dipping Sticks… ooh…over there, it’s Lemonheads… holy crap, look at all this Pez… wait, who are these supposed to be… WHO CARES IT’S PEZ… PEZ…whoah…wait…tree of suckers… don’t mind if I do… Red Hots… get your Red Hots here… NERDS…swoon!»
And all of that was before I even had a drop, lick, or chew of the sweet stuff. Though I may be writting this review under the influence of Pixie Stix.
Now for those few who aren’t mesmerized by colorful boxes (mmm…colorful boxes), Suckers has fine, homemade chocolates and bulk candies for the sweeth toothed connoisseur.
Yeah, this cute little store has all you might need to go into nostalgic sugar shock. Unfortunately, it also has a bit of sticker shock to go along with it. Candy has gotten a bit more expensive even as my ability to pay for it has gone up. Boo!
And you know what else has grown shorter as I’ve grown up — my ability to go to a store that closes at 6:00 p.m. To cash in my Groupon, I actually had to go back twice. Due to their holiday hours, I showed up at their door and found them closed on the first try.
You want to see this grown man cry? Deny him candy but let him see it through the window!
Maybe this place does a booming business in Stroller Village during downtown work hours, but it’s not convenient. They had enough to lure me back without a Groupon. But, unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the time. Maybe on the weekend after consuming enough candy to give me the energy.
Maybe.
Aw who am I kidding? Yes, please, yes!

Bought two groupons in the summer with high hopes because I have a sweet tooth, and I love candy apples. Went to get some candy apples in October, and was very disappointed that they had NO candy apples or anything like it. (–1 Star!) I was expecting a bit more from what I read about the place, but it was very small, and just like your regular store but instead of one aisle of sweets, they had a few. (–1 Star for the feeling of disappointment!) Nothing at all that struck my liking, so I decided to save these for XMas gifts, little extras I could include with the presents.
Come December, I am super swamped at work, with no days off, but I make a few trips out to that neighborhood to use my groupons before they expire. Each time, they are closed! It is usually around 7 or 8pm, so I am kind of perplexed. Two weeks before Christmas, and the place is seemingly never open. Finally the weekend before my groupons are supposed to expire, I look up the website to see what exactly their hours are. It says «Open Thu-​Fri 11am-​8pm; Sat 10am-​6pm; Sun 12pm-​5pm».
(-1 BIG FAT star right there for the nasty combination of «interesting» hours, and it being the friggin holidays. AND a week before the groupon expires, and they have 100’s left to be redeemed…)
They aren’t even open the two days before my groupon is to expire so I am crap out of luck. Or am I?
I realize that the point of Groupon is to get new customers and to keep them coming back by wowing them with exemplary service and customer satisfaction. Since they just expired and I did MY best to redeem them before they expired, but they were not open for the two days immediately prior to the expiration date, I thought they’d let me slide. After all the point of the deal is to get customers.
I called when their hours said they’d be open again, and told them about the situation. The lady on the phone was kind of curt and told me that they were in fact open on Sunday and Tuesday before the Groupon expired. Well… that would have been great to know when I was online, looking for that exact fact! But their hours are listed as NOT open on Tuesday, therefor I did not drive there again, because how would I know that, so there for I am indeed SOL, and that makes me feel like a big fat grinch because I was dreaming about sugar plums and all that yum and instead all I get was more helpings of disappointment at the candy store. (- 2 BIG FAT HUGE stars.)
The lady did offer to let me use my groupon to get $ 10 worth of goodies so that I didn’t actually lose money, so I’ll give them 1 STAR for that. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
But I probably won’t waste my gas or time trying to get back out that way just for a few little pieces of sugar. I wanted my great groupon deal, and I wanted it for Christmas. Anyways, I hear that they had tons of Grouponers descending apon their tiny shop this past week, so I probably would’ve been even more disappointed then I was in October. Definitely not going to go back just to get my money back. $ 10 not worth it I’d rather forget this place and the little pang of resentment at buying a Groupon to this place.
Bah hum bug.

Fortunately I took my cue from Pam D. and stayed away around Halloween, but I was advised by Groupon that my certificates would expire on the 15^th of this month so it was past time to get there and get my money’s worth. Fortunately I had Dawn with me because I could only use one Groupon at a time. That would have put a serious crimp in my plans if I’d gone there alone.
And yes it is a cute little store. I steered clear of the «penny’ candy, opting instead for chocolates to add to our tins of Christmas cookies. I managed to get quite a few pieces of the smaller, Christmas-​y stuff with my two groupons + about $ 17, but with chocolate, especially the good stuff, I expect to pay a lot. In this respect I found their prices pretty consistent with most other places.
The gal behind the counter was very nice and very helpful, and she knows her chocolates. She told me everything was locally made, and let me know when there would be fresh candy coming in for the holiday. Unfortunately between our cookie-​giving schedule and the rapidly expiring Groupons, there was no chance that we could wait for the fresher stuff. Still, it’s great to know that they’re very careful about what they sell, and frankly it explains some of the pricing, at least on the chocolates.
While I didn’t buy any of the hard candies, I did look around a bit at them and I saw a number of old favorites which I hadn’t seen in years. It’s good to know that they’re still out there for new generations of kids to find. Yeah, they’re pricey, but maybe if they’d been similarly so when I was a kid, it would have saved my folks some dental expenses.
I liked the place and the people. I can’t say that I consider it a destination store for me, but if I’m in the neighborhood again I may well stop by and pick up some Chicago toffee or a couple of the delicious pecan critters. Definitely worth a visit for the candy lover.

The shop is very cute — unfortunately for us we visited based on the Groupon. I say unfortunate because the place was nearly emptied because of the Groupon and the people in front of us had 4 Groupons to fill, which made me a little sad, as they scooped up some of the remaining gummy bears that I love. The employee was as friendly and upbeat as she could be under the circumstances because she was swamped and she is the only one there to count the candy, measure the bulk candy, and get the chocolates behind the glass. Oh and also create the gift baskets. Today is December 7 and the Groupon expires on December 15, and they have about 800 outstanding Groupons left — oh did I mention they are nearly cleaned out of candy?
Apparently, they will have more candy coming in, but good luck. If you want to visit this gem, do so after December 15 and before January 1. Because the shop is closed the month of January.
Now the good stuff:
1. Cute
2. Good selection (when they aren’t over run by Groupon — like me)
3. Interesting and nostalgia candy! I cannot believe they have the baseball chew! and the candy cigarettes — plus the cherry mash bars. Oh and the huge array of gummy candies!
4. Tasty candy treats
5. Pretty gift baskets with various options
Bad stuff:
1. Kind of pricey — but you can’t get some of this candy just anywhere
2. Shop is a little cramped
I might come back for some gift baskets for nostalgia. But not sure I would stop in just for the candy — its kind of expensive.

When a Groupon came up for this place my second thought was: Ooh, this would be perfect, I can get my dad some of his candy favorites for his birthday!*
I wandered into Suckers with my $ 25 Groupon burning a hole in my pocket. The place is tiny, but cute; it’s decorated in pink, white and black and has a giant penguin out front.
My dad has a vicious sweet tooth and I had high hopes for this place, which bills itself as specializing in nostalgic candies and gourmet chocolates. For me, it fell way short on the nostalgic candy part. To me Jelly Belly’s, Lemonheads and Sour Patch Kids are hardly what I consider nostalgic candy.
I was hoping for some old fashioned hard candy since my dad is partial to root beer barrels, lemon drops and spearmint leaves. Unfortunately, they had none of these items, let alone much bulk hard candy at all. They had some of those old fashioned hard candy sticks, but the selection was very picked over with only a few of the crappy flavors left. I felt like most of the «nostalgic» candy items were more unique, than nostalgic or else things you could find at 7 – 11. I settled on some of his other standbys — Tootsie Rolls and Clark Bars before turning my attention to the chocolates.
I thought I’d have a hard time spending all $ 25 of my Groupon; not so much, I got a bit carried away with the gourmet chocolates picking up a few little things for myself too. I got chocolate covered Oreos, nonpareils, chocolate covered raisins, malted milk balls, chocolate dipped toffee, and possibly 1 or 2 other items. I was like a whirling dervish and before I knew it spent my Groupon and then some. I like that they offer many items in milk as well as dark chocolate.
Service was friendly, but prices were expensive; all of that little stuff really adds up. Seeing the look on my dad’s face when he opened his big ass bag of candy was worth it, but I can’t afford to shop here on a regular basis. If I do return it will be for a little chocolate something-​something, likely some Clodhoppers, the Canadian chocolate candy so hard to find around these parts.
* My first thought was CAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNDDYYYYYYY!!!

Yes it is a cute little store… cute and expensive. Thank ghod I had a Groupon or I would have turned around and walked out with a «thank you, but no thank you» stride.
I am one of those old enough to remember when penny candy was literally a penny. What I saw here was much akin to what they used to have in the old «school store» across the street from my grade school. Back then a dime in your pocket could insure a good cavity in your molar and a smile on your face. Yes, I know those days are long gone, but dang, parents these days need to financially cough up a lung to rot their kids teeth!!!
The girl behind the counter was really nice and helpful. She had a lot of patrons to deal with and did a great job. Kudos to her, especially for having to deal with a line of us Groupon users who made up the majority of customers at the time.
The steady stream of people coming in and out tells me that the craving for sweets still runs strong. The little bag of candy (worth 25 dollars) that I walked out with tells me, my childhood days truly are over. I’m too old and too cheap to get much enjoyment from it.

Great selection of extremely juvenile candy, some gourmet chocolates. Definitely a fun neighborhood store.

I passed this place so many times in the past, but when my bad month continued by finding that someone sideswiped my car last night I decided it was a day that only candy and chocolate could help make better.
Prices for some of it was a bit high, but there were items here that you couldn’t find anywhere else and items that brought back tons of memories. And the chocolates were so dang good, turtles, chocolate covered Oreos, pretzels, peeps and gummies…
I will for sure be back, but hopefully not because my shitty month continues to be shitty.

Utterly disappointing. After driving by this place as part of my daily commute for 14 months, I finally found time last Saturday to visit. What a let-​down.
–Don’t put a penguin out front with an «ice cream!» sign on it unless you sell ice cream cones. Small pints of ice cream in a freezer don’t count.
–The owner/​cashier shouldn’t stare you down as you browse. I’m not going to steal your candy, lady.
The chocolates at the counter were great but expensive and hardly worth a special trip.

So old school. I felt like a kid in a candy store again (badumbum – I’ll be here all week folks!). I went to purchase a bag of candy for the Willy Wonka auction date we are hosting, and was very excited to see so many Wonka options. Plenty of other candies I remember from the Stone Age when I was a kid – candy buttons, charleston chews, pixy stix, lik-​m-​aids, bubble gum cigarettes, etc, etc, etc. Next time I am craving sweet nostalgia, or if I want to share the cravings of my youth with my nephews, I will definitely head for here.

Good golly gosh, I love this little store. Not only do I love penguins (the friendly greeter at the door) I LOVE gummies, and boy do they have a selection. Whether you want sour, sweet, crunchy, or smooth gummies, they have them all. My favorites are the juice-​swirled gummy bears (red, orange and turquoise) and the sprinkle-​encrusted lemon-​lime gumdrops. They also have incredible-​looking fresh chocolates, European melt-​in-​your-​mouth imports, and basically anything you could imagine being made in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
Being so close to my house, it’s kind of dangerous, but I’ll stop by for my afternoon treats whenever I so please. Because having a little extra tummy pudge is worth it to keep this business running!