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ALTON - Altonians of all ages can feel like kids in a candy shop at Sherry's Snacks, located at 2500 College Ave in Alton.
The candy and sweet shop had its soft opening last Saturday, and saw as many as 2,000 customers as of Monday. Owner Kyle Hulker, who owns the tattoo shop down the street, said he wanted to make a business like no other. His dream was to offer the children of Alton a unique place to shop for candy and other assorted sweets.
"There's nothing cool for kids to go to," Hulker said. "It's not that cool to go shop for candy at Walgreens. When I was younger, there was all sorts of cool stuff to do, and every older person you met had a favorite candy shop when they were younger."
Hulker said his favorite candy shop was the Curly Cone on Milton road when he was a young man.
On the outside of the shop, murals reminiscent of old time wall-dogs, or hand-painted advertisements on the side of the building, done by well-known St. Louis sign artists.
The inside of the shop features a large selection of a various assortment of candies and sweets, including, but definitely not limited to, taffy, gummy worms, jellybeans, large chocolate turtles and Cry Babies.
"We did tons of research into this," Hulker said. "We tested tons of samples, and found the best there is. We have the best taffy you can find, the best gummy worms you can find and we worked on having the best flavors as well."
Besides choosing his favorite flavors, Hulker also researched the favorite flavors of each candy online to ensure he had a broad spectrum of flavors to fit everyone's taste buds.
One thing Hulker did not expect was the massive crowds his new shop attracted. He also said his inventory has been going faster than he anticipated on items he did not realize would be so popular.
"We had these large chocolate turtles," he said, showing the size of them to be larger than his fist. "They were expensive for us to get, so they aren't cheap for people to buy. We didn't think we'd sell that many, but we're already out."
Hulker said he purchased a month's supply of everything before opening the business and is constantly surprised by how fast the items are flying off the shelves. He is happy, however, the people of Alton are frequenting a business such as his.
"Alton is such a cool little town," he said. "There is lots of potential for cool stuff like this to give people more stuff to do around here."
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