Bangor residents with a sweet tooth, rejoice. The Queen City’s only candy store opened Friday.
Oh, Grow Up! offers an array of gummy, sour and chocolate candies, primarily through a pick-your-own wall, in its storefront at 21 Central St.
The store is the latest addition downtown following a gift shop opening earlier this month and multiple new restaurants. Oh, Grow Up! fills a hole as the only candy shop downtown, its owner said.
“This is something that is lacking in town,” owner Andy Day said, noting that the pick-and-mix wall has been especially popular in the store’s first day. “You’re creating your own selection.”
The shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Day said.
Day is working with multiple distributors to source offerings, including sweets that you’ll rarely find at local grocery stores — such as gummy chicken feet and sour sriracha candy.
Pick-and-mix bins also include jelly beans, soda bottle gummies, chocolate malt balls, cow tales, peach rings, lollipops and more, with about 80 options in total.
Customers can fill a box of candy for a flat $5.50, or fill a bag for $11.50 per pound.
Individual candies, as well as gifts and joke items, are also available. Visitors may find themselves bringing home ranch dressing-flavored soda or a gummy bear-shaped inflatable chair.
Day overhauled the interior of the shop before opening and put a couch and an old Atari on a mezzanine level where visitors can hang out.
He and two staff members, Sophie Crooker and Conroy Leary, said they’ve gotten a lot of visitors so far who seem excited about the opening.
“Everyone’s amped up to have a store like this,” Leary said, noting that the store offers “a lot of stuff you can’t find other places” and that the team plans to switch out inventory frequently to offer new types of candy.
