Spooky in the City is an ongoing series on Spooky Little Halloween. In 2024, Miranda is taking you to a local haunt in her new home state of Minnesota, then showing you how to find similar spooky spots in your city, state, or country.
What's the best part of Halloween? That's right — candy! And as we kick off a new round of Spooky in the City in Minnesota, we're making the sweet stuff a priority.
Admittedly, this stop isn’t outright spooky, but that’s part of the fun of looking for Halloween in the every day.
Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store caught my eye last summer went I drove by on my way down to visit HalloweenCostumes.com’s headquarters in Mankato, MN.
I mean…how could it not? It’s a giant yellow building sitting on the edge of a four-lane highway in a corn field.
Ever since, I’ve been meaning to make the trek back down 169, and restarting this blog series was the perfect excuse.
Was it spooky? No.
Did I find Halloween candy? Yes.
Was it a cheesy tourist trap roadside attraction? Absolutely.
But it was all part of the charm. (Not part of the charm: only taking cash or checks to clearly avoid credit card fees, so save yourself the $3 ATM charge I had to take for the team by not being prepared…)
Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store, located in Jordan, MN about 30 miles southwest of Minneapolis, has been around for 40 years. Inside you will find, of course, candy.
But the store also sells baked goods, tons of unique flavored sodas, and even fresh cheese curds. I also found lots of quick breads, jams, jellies, and sauces you would typically see in touristy foodie gift shops.
They even had fresh apples, and it looks like later this fall they’ll have pumpkins from their farm too!
My visit left me wondering if this was the largest candy store in Minnesota…was it also the largest in the country?
The short answer: no.
That title belongs to b.a. Sweetie Candy Company in Cleveland, Ohio.
But Minnesota almost had a shot at nabbing that claim to fame. Earlier this year, the shop and its owner were in the local news because of planned road construction to the highway it sits on that would have cut off access to the store. There was talk of moving to a new nearby intersection and rebuilding to become the title of largest candy store in the U.S.
Now, it looks like those plans are trashed thanks to construction concerns and a new solution for a frontage road has been developed. The store will stay put but is still worth the stop if you’re looking for specialty candies galore.
Here’s what I saw on my visit:
Aisles and miles of candy. Every candy you could imagine. Chocolates. Chocolate-covered everything (like the potato chips). Sweet. Sour. Gummy. Hard candies. You name it, it was there.
A shop like this is such a dream for me. I love a little bit of everything, and the small packages + decent prices made it easy to essentially create my own trick-or-treat pail. (More on what I picked at the end.)
There was plenty of pre-packaged classics, like Runts and Dots.
But there was also specialty candy too, like this huge display of salt water taffy. (This shot was only about a quarter of it.)
Yes, there was Halloween-wrapped salt water taffy — though I’m not sure what flavors these are.
And, as you may have seen on Instagram, there was candy corn taffy too…which I was not brave enough to try but perhaps you are!
And yes, there was real candy corn too!
This place is definitely meant to appeal to kids with all its colorful lighting and wild paintings.
There were lots of prepackaged candy options, like aaall these rock candies.
There was even an entire international candy section, full of candy bars, chocolates, and more from around the world.
My fave find? Halloween, of course! There was lots of decor outside as you walked in.
And a few fun mirrors too. This is easily the shortest I’ve looked in decades.
So…what came home with me?
Here’s the goodie stack! I got:
Milk chocolate rainbow nonpareils
Yogurt-covered pretzels
Dark chocolate sea salt pecan turtles
Sour gummy pumpkins
HOW TO FIND A giant candy store NEAR YOU:
Here are a few key phrases you can search with your city, state or country’s name to find a killer candy store near you:
candy shop/store + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
specialty candy shop/store + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
sweets shop/store + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
fudge shop/store + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
local candy shop/store + NEAR ME
old fashioned candy shop/store + NEAR ME
What candy would you pick up?
Out of everything I shared, let me know what would go in your trick-or-treat pail.
