IT’SUGAR Sells Laughter. Also, Candy
By Lorrie Baumann
With over 100 stores scattered across 27 states, IT’SUGAR has become the largest specialty candy retailer in the world. Founded by Chief Executive Officer Jeff Rubin in June 2006 with a store in front of Caesar’s Palace Hotel, right on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the chain has just opened a new flagship store on the Las Vegas Strip, right across the street from the Bellagio Hotel’s famous fountains.
Like Las Vegas itself, IT’SUGAR shops are fantasies in which adults can recapture the fun of childhood while enjoying guilty pleasures spiced with a smidgeon of temptation. And like Las Vegas itself, they’re a world in which children are welcome, but they’re not the primary market for the thrills that are offered. “It’s a much more modern version of a traditional candy shop,” Rubin said. “We’re creating a theater to immerse you in the humor, in the fun experience of our store, so that you have a very entertaining time while you’re in our store.”
Like the new Las Vegas store, the other IT’SUGAR stores, which range from 2,000 to 7,000 square feet in size, are in places where people congregate when they’re looking for fun – mostly in resort areas or the kind of lifestyle centers that also include restaurants, bars and theaters. Their lively music and colorful art and fixtures draw in passers-by who wander in looking for fun and stay to buy candy that’s as much about humor as it is about sweetness. “We can obviously satisfy a sweet tooth, but more importantly, we were put on Earth to provide an irreverent escape from the mundane world,” Rubin said. “We have created a store that makes you laugh, smile and enjoy yourself…When you’ve finished dinner at one of the entertainment vendors, you get hit with music and these funny products. You find yourself walking out with something you didn’t even know you needed.”
Customers are met just inside the front door with stacked tiers holding bowl after bowl of pick-and-mix candy on island fixtures around the floor, and they’re lured farther inside by shelves stacked with giant boxes of Nerds; “Saturday Night Live” confections; limited edition flavors of Starburst chews; nearly two dozen flavors of gummy bears; marshmallow unicorn poop, giant gummy foods ranging from watermelon to eggs and bacon; Charleston Chews; Pop Rocks and Razzles they loved when they were kids; PEZ dispensers cuter than the ones that swallowed their allowance when they were kids; stuffed toys shaped like candies; t-shirts celebrating the joys of sugar; exclusive “Stranger Things” products from IT’SUGAR’s continuing partnership with Netflix; and funny greeting cards that might be tucked in with a 5-pound gummy bear for a birthday gift.
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“When anyone gets a gift that someone purchased from IT’SUGAR, it was given to them to make them laugh,” Rubin said. “IT’SUGAR is meant to elicit laughter.”
One of the best-selling items is Marshmallow Madness, a big cereal box filled with nothing but little square marshmallows. “We try to create products that are very funny and entertaining, versus a traditional confectionery retail store,” Rubin said. “Over half our sales come from exclusive, curated products.”
Another recent hit has been IT’SUGAR’s line of nine cocktail-flavored gummy bears called Beary Buzzed. The new line is non-alcoholic, but the fun cocktail flavors include Cosmopolitan, Gin & Tonic, Limoncello, Maple Bourbon and Margarita. They’re sold in custom fillable shakers, with a full shaker retailing for $9.99. “We just had to place an emergency re-order because they’re selling faster than we ever imagined,” Rubin said.
“We have our own box of gummy bear cereal. It’s part of an unbalanced diet,” he added. “It’s an unapologetic message that sugar delivers. IT’SUGAR sells sugar. It doesn’t hide from it. We’re providing an escape from all the rules of society that everybody must live by. IT’SUGAR kind of does that through its humor. Popular as gummy worms may be, they’re still outsold by the bears,” Rubin said. “Maybe it just has to do with tradition,” he speculated. “Although I will tell you we’ve come up with some interesting different shapes, but at the end of the day, bears are still what people gravitate to. When you say the word ‘gummy,’ you almost expect the word ‘bear’ to follow.”
