THE New York City “candy store” is a longstanding tradition and in the guise of also selling magazines, newspapers, cigars, toys and snacks, they’re still around today. However there was a time when there were actual candy stores that sold nothing but confectionery, mainly boxed candy but also foods like ice cream on occasion. When I was a kid I remember pilgrimages on the B16 bus to Flatbush Avenue near Prospect Park, where there was this huge candy store that sold every variety you could think of, sort of like today’s Economy Candy on the Lower East Side. (Someone once sent me the name of that store but I forget it now.) I am tempted today to order fruit slice candy and chocolate covered pretzels until the angel on my shoulder wins out.
By the time I was a kid in the Swinging 60s, the Candy Wars had shaken down to two rivals: Loft’s and Barricini. The first Loft’s candy store was opened by British immigrant William Loft in 1860, with his son George Loft gradually opening more branches in NYC in the 1890s. Production was centered in Long Island City, expanding to ten office buildings and factories at Vernon Boulevard and 40th Avenue.
Barricini, meanwhile, is a bit harder to research, but a New York Times obituary in 1951 states that brothers in law Mac and Jack Barricini founded a candy store at Broadway and 158th Street in Washington Heights in 1928. The article mentions that Barricini wasn’t Mac’s given name but that “Barracini” sounded like a good name for a candy store and eventually the brothers in law adopted it as their legal surnames. By 1951 there were 45 Barricini candy shops around town.
In 1971, Loft’s was acquired by Southland Corporation, which purchased Barricini the next year and combined the two into Barricini-Loft. By 1988 all the combined shops had closed.
I got this shot from Facebook of a rather forlorn-looking Barricini at Avenue A and East 14th Street in the Super 70s, from the looks of things.
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10/2/23
18 comments
Wow thanks for this.
The Barracini factory was also in LIC at 22 st and 41 ave. The building was much smaller than Lofts
There was also Barton’s, which sold kosher, Jewish-holiday themed candy. They had multiple stores in NYC; according to Wikipedia, they had 3,000 US stores in 1960.
I remember the Barton’s store on Madison Avenue near 36/37–it survived into the 1990s when I was working there.
See’s Candies is a thriving nationwide chain. It’s one of Warren Buffet’s holdings, along with such companies as Dairy Queen, GEICO insurance, Benjamin Moore paint, and the BNSF railroad.
Our neighborhood candy store at York Ave, and 83rd st. sold penny candy from tubs
on the floor but it was never name brand stuff,just off-brands.
Godiva had a shop in the concourse of the original WTC. Russel Stover was another but I do not recall locations.
https://ephemeralnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/loftscandiessign.jpg
These “name brand” candy stores were too rich for my old Cypress Hills neighborhood. I bought my baseball cards and comic books at three old time candy stores: Corner Ridgewood and Lincoln Aves, corner Euclid and Ridgewood Aves (neither still in retail, shops became apartments in their buildings) and Fulton Street right at the city-bound side stairway to the Crescent Street station on the Jamaica El. Great location. Grungy store. In the mid-60’s they sold porn from the same hanging racks that had Superman and Time, etc. Kind of shocking. 10 year olds would never see things like this anywhere. My church, Blessed Sacrament, took notice. Their school (where I went) was around the corner. One day the principal made a PA announcement forbidding students from entering the store! To enforce it, they stationed nuns in front of the store before and after school, and during lunch. The porn vanished. The store is now a wireless phone shop.
“Candy store” had a different connotation when I was growing up in Brooklyn. Yes they sold candy, but it was also a local mob hangout. I always wondered why people would exchange a few coins for a little piece of paper…
The candy store I remembered sold those Spaldeen rubber balls. Or was it a Pennsy Pinkie ?.
According to street view on Google Maps, this is now a Target with apartments on top of it, though the building next to it is still there.
Lofts, Barton’s & Barricini each had shops on Broadway/80’s when I was growing up there in the fifties.
The Barricini’s here also sold Halloween costumes, where my mom would buy them in the late 70’s – early 80s. It eventually became a flower shop that burned down in the early aughts.
If memory serves me correctly, there was a Barricini store in the Bergen Mall (now Bergen Town Center) on Rt 4 in Paramus NJ. It was diagonally across the mall from one of Stern’s entrances.
I recall Barton’s Bonbonnier; very similar to Barricini. Both occupied substantial real estate and had huge plate glass windows with incredible candies on display. I remember them both being on Fourteenth Street across from Stuyvesant Town. My mom had a liking for Horn & Hardart’s retail store: LESS WORK FOR MOTHER! She always remembered that tag line.
When I was 16 I worked at Barricini’s on Lexington and either 51st or 59th. Loved that job and the chocolate!
My boss was Ruth Conlon (spelling) and the asst mgr was Louise Van Immerseel (spelling). But, I worked so much my grades were terrible and mom made me quit.
I met Ira Barricini at least once (Christmas party at a night club) – great guy, sorry to read that he dies so young.
Ira was my dad. He died at age 42