New candy stores are popping up across NYC. Why?

Here is a story making headlines in the economy: New candy stores are popping up across NYC. Image source, Getty ImagesByAlexis Benveniste Business reporter, Reporting fromNew York CityPublished11 June 2026With US consumer confidence at historic lows, it's a tough time for retailers across the country. But in and around New York City one niche sector is expanding – candy stores.

Mitchell Cohen, the third-generation owner of Economy Candy, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, has a theory – people will still buy candy (or sweets, as they are called in British English) – when economic times are difficult. "The dollar isn't going as far these days," he says. "Inflation, uncertainty, all that, but there's always candy.

Economic Details

"The business, the oldest sweet shop in New York, first opened its doors in 1937, towards the end of the Great Depression. Initially it was a hat and shoe repair store, with candies sold from a cart out front as an extra earning stream. But people couldn't afford to get things repaired, Cohen says.

So his grandfather entirely pivoted to what was still selling – the affordable sweet treats. Eighty-nine years later, Economy Candy is still going strong. Image source, Economy CandyImage caption, Economy Candy has been selling sweets to New Yorkers since 1937While the most recent official data shows that US retail sales are still growing, up 4.

9% in April, external from the same month last year, US consumer sentiment hit a new all-time low in May,, external according to one closely-watched report. Echoing the thoughts of Mitchell Cohen, Kate Bolger says that as candy has a low price point "everyone can partake" despite people feeling the economic pinch. Next month she is due to open The Village Confectionery, a candy store in Sleepy Hollow, the Hudson Valley town 28 miles north of New York City that is best known as being the setting of the 19th Century horror short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Analyst Views

Bolger, who previously worked as a movie producer, says that while consumers may be putting off making big, expensive purchases, they can still treat themselves to a piece of candy. It is an extension of the so-called "lipstick effect" economic theory that was popularised in the early 2000s, whereby people who couldn't afford to buy something really expensive would buy a little luxury item instead. Image source, Andrew PorterImage caption, Kate Bolger, who opens her store in July, says "everyone can partake" in candyBack in New York City, an upmarket candy store company called BonBon now has five shops across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and another in the Hamptons on Long Island that opened last summer.

The business, founded in 2018 by three Swedish expats, imports its product range from Sweden. Swedish confectionery, which has strict rules regarding the use of all natural ingredients, has in recent years seen a big rise in global popularity thanks to social media. BonBon co-founder Leo Schaltz says that a key company rule for its shops is to avoid main avenues.

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.