Rot Your Teeth "80s Style" at Sugar Mountain
by Blair Matthews

The old saying that goes: "Like a kid in a candy store" has never been more true than when people drop by Sugar Mountain in Waterloo, Ontario. John Miller, owner of the Waterloo and London locations has seen his share of people come into his store and are in complete awe of the mountains of candy everywhere you look. There's certainly no false advertising here.

Sugar Mountain started off as more of a 'mound' in 1992 - it took the form of a street level open-air booth on trendy Queen Street West in Toronto. Sean McCann, founder of the company, quickly outgrew his booth and relocated to a nearby storefront in early 1995.

It wasn't long before customers were flocking to the new sugar sensation like, well, ants to a sugar hill.

Today, there are a 10 Sugar Mountain stores with locations in Toronto, Belleville, Ottawa, Waterloo, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. And there are many more stores to come as the company's goal is to have 100 stores across Canada by 2010.

Right now, Sugar Mountain may be the best kept secret among candy connoisseurs, but the word is spreading as more and more people discover the hundreds of varieties of retro candy the store carries.

"Everyone identifies with the retro theme," Miller says. "Candy has such a good feeling for people. A lot of kids had parents that would treat them to candy of some sort if they were good. So people really identify with that when they come in here. It really takes them back and gives them a good feeling - it's always a pleasant memory."

If you were a kid in the 80's, you'll probably recognize old favourites available at Sugar Mountain like Tootsie Roll, Junior Mints, Pop Rocks, Magic Sticks, Ring Pops, Sweetarts, Warheads, Big League Chew, Pixy Stix, Garbage Pail Kids, Sugar Babies, Fizz, Bottlecaps, Mojos, Mackintosh's Toffee, Goldmine Gum, Parachute Jumpers - the list goes on and on.

Miller says it's amazing how many people in their 30s, 40s and even 50s come into the store and are amazed when they find candy they remember indulging in as children.

"It's a fun store to work in because everyone's always in a good mood seeing stuff they haven't seen in a long time."

For the most part, the packaging of the old 80's candy is still the same now as it was back then. Some of the package sizes have changed, and the prices definitely reflect present times. And even in the world of candy, companies must now be politically correct. The old Popeye Cigarettes are now 'Popeye Candy Sticks' minus the red tips. "There's also Bob's Chocolate Sticks which are clearly cigarettes but they're called chocolate sticks," Miller says.

"Some of the packaging has changed to be more in line with production systems these days with more plastic versus paper."

Wonka, who make Bottlecaps, changed their packaging from the old pouch style to a more contemporary smaller package. They've recently changed back to the pouch style since most people who remember eating Bottlecaps in the 80's also remember the old-style pouch packaging.

Of all the 80's candy Miller has, the biggest seller is Fun Dip with the candy stick and flavored powder. "The Fun Dip is huge," Miller says. "It's so popular, it's one of our most popular candies. That was my favourite (when I was a kid) for sure."

Also a child of the 80's, Miller strives to add as many retro 80's pieces to his walls as he can jam on there. From a Knight Rider air mattress, Ker Plunk & Operation games, to 80's posters for Footloose, Back to the Future, Pretty In Pink, The Princess Bride and Dirty Dancing - if it was around in the 1980s, it's fair game to go on the wall.

"It's a lot of fun setting up the store initially and sourcing out all the products, going to garage sales and flea markets. A lot of the records came from my collection - I had a lot of LPs in the 80's when I was growing up."

And there's a wide variety of differences between the guys and girls that come to Sugar Mountain for their candy fix. "The girls love the candy necklaces and Ring Pops, so those are always really popular. Big League Chew is huge with guys. About 70-80% of our customers are female, but when we do get guys the store, they zoom right in on the Big League Chew," he says.

Much of the candy that you'll find at Sugar Mountain is still being produced by companies around the world. Because Sugar Mountain is a franchise, Miller says they're able to buy in quantities but also have the ability to test individual products and decide for themselves which products do well. Approximately 40% of Sugar Mountain's inventory of packaged candy is imported from countries outside of North America including South Africa, Great Britain, Brazil, Holland, Finland and Switzerland.

But even with sources located from one end of the world to the other, there are some candies from the past that just aren't available anymore. Miller says they'll do their best to track down a particular product (they even have a request list where you can add a candy that you'd like to get your hands on).

And in some very rare cases, if they can't find the product, they'll go out and make their own. Case and point: the Koo-Koo bar. One of the most requested favourites from the 80's, Miller says that since the tasty treat (with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavoring) is no longer around, Sugar Mountain has bought the rights to the candy and will be re-introducing it to the world shortly.

They've also introduced a line of Sugar Mountain soda pop that's exclusive to their chain.

The store also carries a selection of rather odd action figures featuring literary characters like William Shakespeare, and biblical figures of Moses and even Jesus. "It's amazing how many people it doesn't offend," Miller says of the slightly odd action figure. "Probably once or twice a year you'll get someone who comes in and says 'oh, I find that so offensive' and it really upsets them. But it's actually meant as an educational toy to educate you about Jesus' life sort of thing. But to each his own... they interpret it as they want to."

And specifically for the 80's kid, Miller points out the collector cards from 1986 featuring Donkey Kong, Cyndi Lauper, and even Garbage Pail Kids. These aren't reproductions of the original 80's card packs - these are the real thing!

Miller says it's a case where someone probably had them stashed away and found them years later. "Someone probably had a skid sitting somewhere in an abandoned warehouse and they blew off the dust and realized what they had," he jokes. "But you don't eat the gum in those ones. It kind of dissintigrates as soon as you touch it."