Couple created business to resemble old-fashioned candy store
Published in the March 19 – April 1, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Photo by Marty Cheek
Andrea Moridi, from Morgan Hill, holds her 18-month-old son Nicholas in The Candy Parlour after his first hair cut in the store’s salon.
Step into The Candy Parlour store for the first time and your eyes might bulge at the cornucopia of shelves and displays laden with a wide variety of mouth-watering confectionery. The downtown Morgan Hill business might be the world’s only candy store with a phone booth-sized salon where kids and parents can get a haircut while relishing a Charleston Chew or Oh Henry! bar.
Chris Reynolds, the store’s owner, readily admits he has long had a major sweet-tooth. That’s what prompted him to open The Candy Parlour three years ago to cater to people with similar cravings for by-gone candy brands. He has become much like a modern-day Willy Wonka in tempting his customers to get hooked on nostalgic sweets that can’t be found in your every-day supermarket aisle.
“I’ve been a candy lover for years,” he said, explaining how he and his wife Nancy Reynolds came up with the idea for The Candy Parlour after he began to lose interest in working in the high-tech industry. “Whenever we traveled around, we’d seek out candy. When we came to Morgan Hill, we noticed there wasn’t a candy shop here.”
The Reynolds toyed with the idea of starting a candy store based on a popular franchise candy chain, but the expensive cost of that business option made it prohibitive. “We were like, we don’t need to look like how another store already looks,” Nancy said. “We can design our own shop. And we love the feeling of going in with the old-fashioned candy and the new stuff. We never get returns, people are always happy.”
While Chris helps customers appease their sugar addictions, Josh Conlan works as the stylist. “The concept for the salon started with kids because its seemed like a good motivator to get kids to come in and get their hair cut,” Chris said. “Most kids don’t like getting their hair cut and the reward of a balloon and a piece of candy is a great motivator.”
Giving a tour of the store, Chris showed off a carton of Abba Zabbas. “Those are definitely a dentist’s helper right there. I’m sure in my time I’ve pulled out a filling our two,” he admitted. Other nostalgia-laced confectionery on display include Big Hunks, Chick-O-Sticks, and jawbreakers the size of baseballs. A glimpse of the line of Pez mechanical dispensers creates a mental time machine that can take grown-ups back to their youth.
Chris and Nancy point out all the candy in glass jars they sell in bulk. The selection of more than 120 varieties from Jelly Belly and other classic brands include numerous options in the salt water taffy line as well as traditional gummy bears and gummy army men and more exotic peach gummy rings and Swedish fish reds.
For the more discriminating candy connoisseur, the Reynolds stock a selection of hard-to-find British and European candies as well as locally-made products from Hollister’s Marich Premium Chocolates and the high-end, handmade chocolates from the 102-year-old Schurra’s in San Jose. The store also stocks ice-cold East Coast and Canadian sodas in glass bottles, sweet beverages that are hard to find in California, as well as frozen treats such as nostalgic ice creams.
“Our focus is to create an environment of memories — rejuvenate the memories we had as kids and create new memories for the kids of Morgan Hill and South County,” Chris said. “We try to find all the available old-fashioned candy with a little bit of a mixture of the current stuff.”
THE CANDY PARLOUR
Location: 17415 Monterey Road
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
Haircuts: Kids $15, Adults $20.
Contact:(408) 776-1060, or www.thecandyparlour.com
For festive celebrations such as birthdays, The Candy Parlour does parties at its store, offering three options that include a treasure hunt, dancing games, crazy-colored hair, and fake tattoos. The treasure hunt lets every child take home several candies and toys.
