Featuring a wide range of specialty candy and soda pop, Rocket Fizz in St. Charles offers up a sugar rush and a bit of nostalgia as well, its fans say.
“The kids are just in awe and want to look at everything,” South Elgin resident Alice Froemling said recently during a stop at the shop at 301 W. Main St. in downtown St. Charles. “I feel there is a selection of a lot of candies I don’t see at other stores or places.”
A national chain of independently-owned stores, the St. Charles location of Rocket Fizz, which opened in 2015, is one of only three in Illinois, with the others in Schaumburg and Woodstock.
The manager of the St. Charles store, Payton Bird, has worked there for five years, and also manages the Woodstock store.
The St. Charles store has thrived, he said, “as we specialize in the specialty candies and sodas and people really like the stuff they can’t find at their local grocery store or gas station.”
“We have at least 3,000 different types of candies in here. As far as the stock changing or being pretty consistent, as long as we can get new things, we’ll be bringing them in as long as they are available to us,” Bird said.
Bird said that taffy is “the best-seller overall,” something that shopper Rebecca Heidank of Batavia said is her favorite.
“I remember penny candy and I see a lot of new and regional things I wasn’t familiar with,” she said at the store recently. “It’s just nostalgic and fun. It’s the selection and trying things from different places. I bought some of the Mexican candies last time, but for me, taffy is the best.”
Bird noted the store also has a vast soda pop collection.
“In terms of sodas, we have over 550″ different kinds, he said. “People probably say five times a day when they look at our collection of sodas that they’ve never seen most of the brands before.”
The store also carries the more popular, well-known items from the big-name candy companies as well as “international versions of those” such as “Indian-flavored Snicker bars” and “harder to find things that they only sell in Germany like the filled white-chocolate bars we have.”
“Our international candies are changing constantly, but I’d say we have somewhere around 400 to 500 of them,” Bird said.
Bird acknowledges there is a weaving of generations happening at Rocket Fizz as parents and grandparents visit the store and relive their own candy history with the next generation.
“I think it’s extremely important that there is this generational connection,” he said. “We do not have your average customer. Most are middle-age, but it varies so widely – no gender, no age, no race. Everybody loves candy, everybody loves soda.”
Heidank and her husband Tom said candy does have a way of bringing people together.
“I remember the little stores in the neighborhood where they had these barrels of candy and you’d fill your bag and get your things there,” Tom Heidank said. “That’s pretty much what they have here but it’s not a penny anymore. As far as something that evokes nostalgia, I think this is definitely something we need to hold onto. Everybody should be able to experience this.”
“It’s a nice way to connect to the generations,” Rebecca Heidank added. “I don’t know if we’re grooming another generation of candy lovers, but there’s something with any food item – you’re sharing an experience with somebody and making a memory with another person.”
Bird said there are a lot of repeat customers as well as “kids from the local schools” at the store.
He jokes about all the in-house sugar and what parents have said regarding possible dental bills.
“Is this a parent’s nightmare as far as candy and people going to the dentist? We often get people asking if we have a dentist referral program,” Bird said. “Unfortunately not, but we’ll work on something. We love our repeat customers and we love hearing it’s people’s first time. We love providing the nostalgia and the wonder that they are looking for.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
