For those of a certain age, the local sweet shop – with its walls lined with jars of sweets – retains a special place in our hearts. Debra Anderson has one particularly strong memory. “It was when I was allowed to go for the first time to the shop on my own,” she says. “I think I was about five or six. I don’t know what I bought, but I can just see myself walking in. I was so proud!”
A few years later, when her family moved to Carnoustie, there was another sweet shop across the the road from her primary school. “I’d get an ounce of sherbet in a wee white bag, and then just dip into it with my finger,” she adds. “I can’t remember having a lot of sweeties as a child, though. It wasn’t because we couldn’t afford them; it was probably just where I stayed – middle of nowhere, not just five minutes down the road from any shops.”
So how is it that Debra now runs her own sweet shop? “A friend of my partner suggested that they thought I could do something with their vacant shop,” she says. “I had a look at it, and it was tiny, but it was the inspiration I needed to have my own business, after years in the hospitality industry. Seeing the shop, I suddenly thought: I could get a lot of sweeties along that wall. I still don’t know where that idea came from.”
Foot of the Walk
Debra opened Candersons in April 2012, near “the foot of ‘the Walk’ in Leith. “I quickly realised I needed to do other stuff; to offer bespoke baskets of sweets, boxes, and small ‘sweetie trees’. That’s where my creative side is; I always like making up my sweetie trees.”
She’s certainly learned a lot in the last three years. “You listen to your customers,” she says. “They pick their favourites so you know what to buy in, what’s going to sell.”
It was also a customer enquiry which led her to offer a candy cart hire service for special events, ranging from children’s parties and local fairs to weddings and corporate events in hotels around the city. “It allows me to get my shop ‘out there’,” she says, “though I don’t want it to get too big at the moment; it needs to be something I can manage myself.”
The Tesco Factor
After just two years, Debra moved a few doors up the road into significantly larger premises, enabling her to increase her stock and add soft drinks, slushies and ice cream. She’s still just five minutes from Leith’s largest Tesco store, however, and is well aware of what not to stock.
“I’m not in competition with them; I try not to stock what they stock, and stick with the traditional jarred sweets, rather than bars of chocolate. I tried it once; spent a fortune on bars but, while they did all eventually sell, I should have known people can get those at Tesco. It taught me a valuable lesson.”
Possibly the biggest surprise remains just how few children come into the shop – there’s more now, but the vast majority of her customers are adults. “A lot of customers are surprised that some of the sweeties have come back,” she explains. “They’ll say: ‘This is what I remember!’ or ‘Oh! This takes me back!’ They reminisce, they talk about the old sweeties they used to have, and how the modern ones are not quite the same. I was actually wondering recently when that will stop – I don’t think it ever will!”
First published in Scottish Memories, September 2015.
