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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Lollipops at The Candy Store at Target
So I was pretty excited when I heard that Target was going to make some curated shops within Target enlisting the help of Diane and Brian of the Russian Hill store. What I love about the store is that they have such an interesting collection of little tidbits from around the world. Sure, there’s some that’s completely common, but there were things I’d pick up there, especially licorice, that I have a hard time finding elsewhere. Unlike Target’s house branded line of Choxie items, this is not a permanent addition to Target, when it’s gone, it’s gone.
The store at Target amounts to an endcap near the candy aisle in the food section at Target. The theme colors are black and white with a field of some sort of weird light green that I associate with government buildings, black and white. There aren’t really that many products and only three or four formats. There are lollipops and different candy in jars and then some tins of chocolate confections. The price points vary from $2.49 for the lollipops to $9.99 for the large tins.
The cornerstone, I would say, is the display of lollipops. The packaging is simple but the actual pops are clever and appealing. There are swirl pops and clear pops with little Necco wafers embedded in them.
The largest array of products, though, are the ones in the jars. This is where my disappointment originated. They’re $4.99 for 11 to 14 ounces of bulk candy. The candies themselves are underwhelming and expensive. I appreciated the harder to find items, like the sour sanded jelly stars, the gummi fried eggs and licorice scotty dogs. But $5 for less than a pound of Bit O’ Honey or Necco Wafers? That’s insane, the packaging is nice, but not like the tins for the chocolates. They’re just plastic.
The lollipop is double wrapped, which is a good idea. The outer wrap is loose and is closed with just a little twist tie that holds the bow on. Inside that, the pop itself is shrink wrapped. It was tough to get off, the shrink wrap had a big glob of melted plastic at the stick that took quite a bit of work with some scissors to remove. The pop is 3.5 inches square and came in a variety of colors/flavors. I chose orange because I thought it would be a good representation of how flavors are handled.
The hard candy part of the lollipop is nicely poured. It’s a little uneven in spots but has only small bubbles in it. The tight shrink wrapping ended up creating creases and lines across the corners and edges of the pop. The Necco dots are lined up in the sort of pattern that might make some think of Lego blocks or perhaps a six sided die. The flavor of the candy is very simple. It’s orange, just sweet orange. There’s a lot of zest notes in it, but it’s mostly a soft and sugary orange. The Necco wafers are crunchable with the candy, if you’re the type who chews their hard candy. I found the flavors (lemon and lime) of the Necco actually went well (except for pink). But still, it was just a big piece of hard candy on a wooden stick. It’s fun to look at, but really not for eating. The Necco Wafers contain gelatin, so this is not a candy for vegetarians, also contains soy.
I like the idea of a curated set of candy that’s hard to find and well priced. This has some of those elements, but I’m not their actual intended audience. This is for people who don’t realize that there are neighborhood candy shops in so many places where you can find this sort of thing, along with an enthusiastic person behind the register like Diane or Brian. If you’re stuck in big-box store land, this at least has more personality and is a better gift than a peg bag of Scotty Dogs. Related Candies
POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:27 am
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Comment by
The Dude of the House on 5/16/12 at 8:09 am #
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Comment by
Lauren on 5/16/12 at 1:12 pm #
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Comment by
Alek on 5/16/12 at 1:57 pm #
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Ruffy on 5/16/12 at 3:05 pm #
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Comment by
Amanda on 5/19/12 at 3:31 pm #
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.I’ve been to that store in Russian Hill. Thoroughly unimpressive. I was shocked when I heard about their Target deal. Sure, there were a few unique items, but mostly the same bulk product as every other store, in a more highly curated selection.
That lollipop looks like a slice of Muenster cheese, except for the Necco wafers.
I think I can save money by going to the dollar store and get some candies there. It just regular candies with fancy package slapped on it.
I think the concept is cool and I went out of my way to check it out—but I, too, was disappointed. Why bother repackaging Bit o’ Honey like this? I was hoping for some truly unique items and instead saw some relatively mundane offerings at exceptionally high prices. Oh well.
I was really looking forward to this, out of all of the Shops at Target lines. It was so disappointing though! Just re-packaging regular candy in clear plastic bins? BAH!
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