How sweet it still is for candy store owner Laura Smith in Ocean Beach. Having just celebrated her 15th anniversary for Beach Sweets at 5022 Newport Ave., the beachfront candy entrepreneur noted there is an interesting story to tell regarding how she started her shop.
“I was turning 50 and I was working in graphic design and publishing downtown and I was working in a cubicle,” Smith said. She added jokingly, “But it was like, ‘I am just going to this cubicle and I’m going to die, and that is going to be my life.’”
That is when Smith, whose family splits time between Flagstaff and Point Loma, had an epiphany involving past memories from where she came from. “All the East Coast beach towns had old-fashioned candy stores,” she said. “And I always dreamed of opening a candy store in OB because it is a funky beach town. One day I was walking by that store (formerly a T-shirt shop) with my niece and saw that it was for lease. I had already done my business plan, and the owner had a stack of applicants. But he loved our idea. I guess it was just meant to be.”
Beach Sweets is characterized on its website beachsweetsob.com as “an old-fashioned candy store where you can find most of your favorites from your childhood, no matter how old you are.” The candy store makes hand-dipped chocolates, strawberries, handmade fudge, salt water taffy, as well as offering 80 bins full of favorites, and many more hard-to-find confections such as Pop Rocks, Bit-O-Honey, and Abba Zabba.
“We have candies from the ’50s like candy cigarettes,” noted Smith adding, “We also have a lot of dog treats that are really popular, along with some sugar-free candy.”
Of her brick and mortar, Smith said, ”It’s just a really good location a couple of blocks from the beach.”
As to the reasons for her success, Smith replied: “We worked really hard. The harder you work – the luckier you get. Definitely, hard work made it happen.”
And it doesn’t hurt that candy, even in these highly inflationary times, is relatively inexpensive to buy and is a product people desire year-round, not just in summer.
“Almost everybody likes candy,” noted Smith, adding she’s celebrating her 15th business anniversary on Friday, June 17 with “giveaways, raffles, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and other specials.”
