GOSHEN —
There’s room for one more candy store in downtown Goshen.
And that newest store is the Candy Castle. It joins the Nut Shoppe and the Olympia Candy Kitchen in offering sweet treats.
"This has been a dream of mine in life — it’s just a lot sooner than I expected," said owner Deanna Polk.
Polk, of Elkhart, is one of the thousands of people in Elkhart County who lost her job during the recession when her company moved operations to Mexico. She specialized in quality control and was fortunate to receive a severance payment. She looked for work, found a job that did not work out, and was back on the unemployment roll when she began thinking seriously about opening the store.
She said that when she grew up in Milford she would do odd jobs for neighbors to earn some change. She would then go to the drugstore across from her house and buy candy, take it to her secret place and enjoy the candy.
"I always knew someday I would have a candy store and give that feeling back to whoever needs it," she said.
Remembering the treats from her childhood, she decided her store would feature "nostalgic candy" and sodas, which actually span decades before and after her childhood.
"Whether you are 10 years old, I have something nostalgic for them. If you are 100 years old, I have something nostalgic for you," she said.
Her store’s shelves are stocked with throwback goodies, including maple buns, wax lips and fans, Honees, Fizzies, Clark bars, Sifers Valomilk, Boyer’s Butterscotch Smoothies, Necco wafers, Bubble Up, Big Red and Double Cola. There are bubble gum cigars and hard candies of all kinds. You can even buy a package of ball and jacks for 49 cents.
Each week new customers stop in. Many, according to Polk, suggest candies or sodas from their childhoods for her to carry. And she often investigates the suggestions and has added dozens of items through that process.
New customers are often overjoyed when they find her store is filled with items from their childhood, she said.
Many of the candies that were no longer generally available in the Goshen area, were never discontinued, she said, they were just not marketed anymore in this area.
Polk enjoys her store’s location at 109 W. Washington St. She said she first wanted to locate a store in Elkhart but did not get much cooperation in her search for a location or a landlord who was willing to work with her. She also is fond of Goshen, "Because I think the town is very quaint."
As for her’s being the third candy store downtown, Deanna said she doesn’t see any overlap. She said the Nut Shoppe specializes in handmade chocolates, the Olympia also sells handmade chocolates and other candies and also has a lunch counter. Her store offers candies not generally available anywhere else, she said.
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