An 86-year-old local furnishings seller now has a new location.
Since 1937, the longtime Lower East Side holdout economy candy has been slinging treats out of its Rivington Street storefront — and will now continue the tradition from within the halls of its second location in Chelsea Market.
“Economy Candy was born out of the Great Depression and our family has delighted in bringing sweetness and happiness to our customers in the past [85-plus] years, three generations, in good times and bad,” third-generation Economy Candy co-owner Skye Greenfield Cohen told the Post of the new store branch. “Now, moving out of the pandemic and beyond, to our New York neighbors Spreading joy is more important than ever. We’re so excited to have a home away from home in Chelsea Market, which is sure to be infused with the same ‘magic’ you’ll find at our Lower East Side flagship shop.
A significant part of the magic of the original location, however, comes from the feeling of entering a pocket of Manhattan that has somehow remained untouched by the passage of time. In the decades it took it to become “New York City’s oldest retail candy store,” as Economy Candy claims, the store is charmingly stuck in another era—one in which selling wrapped desserts doesn’t seem like a surprising way to live on a hipper block of downtown. Rent at one of the.
Indeed, the store has become iconic, but “hasn’t strayed far from its humble beginnings as a shoe and hat repair shop with a push cart outside selling candy,” as Economy Candy’s website This indicates. “When the recession hit in the ’30s the candy cart started bringing in more business than the shoe store, and in 1937 the business changed to Economy Candy.”
The new Chelsea Market extension, called A Taste of Economy Candy, will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 75 Ninth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets.