“I’m like a child in a sweet shop,” is a remark Leeds sweet shop owner Margaret Timms tends to hear a lot from new customers.
Customers also tend to remark on the rising prices of sweets, telling Margaret who owns Sweet Mania in Crossgates Shopping Centre, that prices were far lower when they were children.
The mother-of-three says she feels “guilty” having to raise prices but it can’t be helped with sweet prices “doubling” in the past five years. Margaret, 58, who’s been in the sweet trade for more than twenty years, has spoken about the modern day challenges that affect a hardworking family run sweetshop.
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Not only are manufacturers raising their prices, people are “more health conscious” these days with lots of parents not letting pleading children enter the shop, plus there seems to be “so many more allergies these days”.
Margaret, mother-of-three, 32, 30 and 27, had been a market trader all her life before opening the shopping centre sweet shop last December. When she was four years old, her dad placed her in a cardboard box below the stall for the family toy shop, as she grew up, she’d put herself to good use and help put out stock.
About 20 years ago, Margaret decided to change the business to selling sweets and her children came up with the name Sweet Mania. They sold sweets across a whole range of markets in the city. She has retained a loyal customer base over the years by “not charging the earth” for sweets and keeping customers happy.
But unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to avoid increasing the prices.
'I feel guilty'
"Prices have doubled within the last five or six years," said Margaret. “You just have to do what you have to do, to keep money coming in and having a turnover and paying the bills.
"It makes me feel guilty because customers are thinking it’s just me that’s raising the prices but it’s the price that’s charged to me that I base my prices on. If I ever get a good deal on anything, I will pass it on to the customers but likewise if the prices are higher, I have to do the same.
“Customers will say the prices are higher [than when they were children] but quite often it’s in a joking way.”
Margaret used Black Jack Chews as an example. Customers have said they used to buy “two for a penny” when they were children, in the 70s, but if you were to buy them today they’d be five times higher at 10p for a couple.
'I wish that we sold healthier sweets'
Sweet Mania sells a vast array of sweets which range from traditional British – some products dating back more than 100 years - and American candy. They have just about every boiled sweet under the sun. Plus whether you want a jelly mix, boiled sweets, Wilko Mints, cola cubes, chewing nuts, Kop Kops, Jolly Ranchers, Airheads or are more inclined to mega sours and Zombie Bombz, Sweet Mania is bound to have them.
Even so, Margaret says she does wish she “sold healthier sweets” with health concerns becoming more prevalent in recent years. She said: “The parents with the young ones are more health conscious, we do find it’s the adults who buy the sweets. Although the kids do sneak in after school! And they say ‘my mum won’t know’. The kids quite often want to come in and their parents say ‘no’.
“I quite often wish that we sold healthier sweets.”
Margaret runs the shop with her daughter Sally, 27, and they both say fighting off the temptation to eat their own products is impossible. Margaret started selling sweets when Sally was a child and she says classmates thought it was “cool”, especially when she’d bring sweets to school for them to share.
'So many more allergies these days'
Margaret likes to make sure customers with a wide variety of dietary needs are catered for in her shop so nobody leaves disappointed. She said this comes down to making sure she has a wide range of stock and not cross-contaminating the products. Plus, she has to check the food colouring in sweets for imported items, mainly from America as some of these are banned.
Margaret said: “We make a point of making sure we’ve got all the gluten free sweets for the coeliacs, the vegetarian sweets, the halal sweets, dairy free sweets. We are able to look after people health wise that way. We have to be careful for anyone with a nut allergy, not to cross-contaminate.”
“There seems to be so many more allergies these days, whether it’s the fact they’re just come to light more, or they’ve always been around and nobody bothered in the past, I don’t know. We’ve got to have nut-free chocolate, dairy free chocolate and dairy free sweets, gluten free and gelatine free.
“The colours as well, there’s lots of colours we’re not allowed to have. We have a lot of natural colours and flavours. Whereas in the old days, I’m sure it must have been the brighter the better.
"We have to be careful of the American sweets that come in, hopefully the importer catches them in the first place. Lots of American sweets have different colours to ours. Certain colours make the kids extremely hyper-active.”
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