I love chocolates, especially turtles with their uber-delicious caramel and pecans all layered together and mixing it up into one sweet taste. So, when I learned that an auction house was selling the remains of a New Jersey candy store that specialized in chocolates and other goodies, I just had to go.
It was named Weber’s Candy Store, but I had never heard of it or, unfortunately, been in it. Weber’s sounded like a nifty place that had been a popular spot in Bridgeton for nearly 120 years before closing last year. The company was founded in the 1880s by William Frederick Weber when he was fresh out of his teens.
His descendants had kept it going, but lately they couldn’t make a go of it anymore in the sweets industry – likely because of so much prepackaged candy in big stores and little shops – and realized it was time to turn off the heaters and shut the doors. The company also sold specialty items that were not made on the premises.
Based on what I read, the store sold great candy that folks dropped in to buy but it also shipped packages across the country, especially to people who came to the shop as children and had moved away.
I recognized the familiar items you’d see in the front of a candy store, but this auction contained the back-of-the-shop items that were used in the candy-making itself. Rows and rows of supposedly less-expensive stuff had been placed on the ground in back of the auction house, while inside the good stuff was on tables and inside cases. Many of the fixtures and equipment, according to the auction-house website, were vintage.
I stood among a woman and her companions as she bidded on a lot of about 100 metal candy molds – with the top bidder taking as many as he/she wanted. The bidding kept going higher and higher and higher until the woman won it at $110 per mold, knocking out a young man in a hat whom someone recognized as a candy-store owner.
How many? the auctioneer’s assistant asked. 50, she said.
That just about flummoxed her companions. They watched incredulously as the woman carefully picked out her 50 from the lot of two-sided small but heavy molds held together with rubber bands. Does she have a shop, I asked a woman next to me. No, she woman, “she has a dream.”
A chorus of questioning voices arose around me as her companions wondered aloud what the heck she’d do with them. This was not her first purchase at the sale. On the floor near her were other store items, and I overheard someone remind her that she had even more in another aisle.
There were other molds – in white plaster, some with figurative shapes – but they did not sell as high.
Standing next to me was a woman who was recording the prices of the candy items on a piece of paper – straining from time to time to hear what the mumbling auctioneer was saying. At one point, she reached over to remove some handwritten price labels on a candy display case – Mint 2.25, Weber box lemon drops, 2.25, Sugar free chunk chocolate $7.50 lb.
Stop, someone scolded her. Leave them there. They authenticate the case. She re-stuck the mint label she had torn away. She must have been connected to the candy-store family in some way.
On top of the case was one of several Weber advertising signs. Earlier, I had walked up as auction-goers were handing a large Weber sign to a woman who had just purchased it. I had seen it earlier and wanted to photograph, it but it had been partially hidden.
Can I get a picture of the sign, I asked. She agreed, posing. “My $650 sign?,” she said in a tone of disbelief that she had paid so much for it. I understood, because at auction you can get caught up in the bidding and go way over what you’d planned to spend.
I suspect that she was not the only one. Prices for the candy-store items were exceedingly high, especially for some of the stuff sold inside. Copper chocolate pots went from $90 for the smallest to more than $230 for the largest (it came with a huge round heater). I wasn’t around when most things sold, so I’m sure many other items went much higher.
Outside, the prices were a little better but still more than the 5 bucks I was willing. I spied some large white circular tins with red writing that once held candies. They were sold in pairs and went for $20 to $30 per pair.
The auction included practically anything you’d need to start your own candy store – if you wanted to make it yourself:
Flat wood confection trays with white substances that looked like flour but was probably sugar; cooking equipment, including chocolate melting pots, circa 1920; wood and glass candy cases; scales; advertising tins and metal baking pans; glass candy jars with lids; metal scoops; 2 National cash registers that looked to weigh a ton; barrels, barrels and more barrels; empty Weber candy boxes; brown labeled jars of wintergreen, peppermint and other flavors; large round sifters; peanut roasters.
On the ground outside, I even found a box of melted chocolate wafers in plastic bags in a box.
The company apparently sold greeting cards, too, because a huge display case stretched along a long row inside the auction house. The case was still flush with greeting cards, and three pails on the floor held even more.
You’ll never need another greeting card in your life, the auctioneer joked. It wasn’t enough, though, because once the bidding got started, no one seemed to be interested.
Finally, a man took the bite and paid $25 for all the cards. It was an inexpensive buy that was worth much more than he paid for it – especially if he sells the cards individually at a flea market.
