42 Best Places to Shop in USA

Pick up a paper bag and fill it from the bushel baskets overflowing with what once was called "penny candy" at the Montana Candy Emporium.

As a museum, Mr. Ed's displays more than 12,000 elephant figurines and elephant-themed objects. As an emporium, it sells more than 1,200 varieties of candy—fudge, pralines, gummies, candy bars, and old-fashioned types like Sugar Daddies and Mallo Cups. Outside, large elephant sculptures inhabit an enchanted forest.

Locally owned and carefully curated, OMG features a single very long aisle of candy, from gimmicky items to gigantic rainbow swirl lollipops. There's also an in-house clothing line, BeCandylicious.

For an old-fashioned sweet treat, pull up a stool at the Parrot Confectionery, a soda fountain and candy store built in the 1920s that sells everything from chocolate malts with homemade ice cream to hand-dipped chocolates and a regional favorite, cherry phosphates.

There are at least a half-dozen candy shops in Seaside's tiny downtown, and shopping for sweets is a favorite pastime here among kids and adults. Phillips has been a favorite since 1897 and presently stocks homemade saltwater taffy, candied fruit slices, caramel popcorn, fudge, stroopwafel, and hand-dipped chocolates in an astonishing array of flavors.

You'll feel like a kid in a candy shop, no matter what your age is, in this store packed with hard-to-find sweets that you haven't seen since childhood. Owner Robin Helfand searches out and buys up vintage candy and keeps a stock of jelly beans in just about every flavor imaginable.

You'll find a quick fix for your sweet tooth here, and you can watch them make fudge, dozens of different caramel apples, and other scrumptious treats. There's another location at 1385 Lowell Avenue.

One of the largest candy stores in the South, Savannah's Candy Kitchen has made its home on historic River Street for more than 30 years. Owner and head confectioner Stan Strickland grew up in Woodbine, Georgia, watching his mother bake pecan log rolls, pralines, and peanut brittle. You'll find every scrumptious delight imaginable here, but don't miss the world-famous praline layer cake. There's a second location in City Market.

Tucked into this Wild West–style clapboard building is a haven of treats: myriad candy bins, boxes of chocolate bars, and—behind the glass case—all kinds of house-made chocolates and fudge. Choose from more than a dozen flavors of homemade ice cream in the summer. Shady tables on the patio provide respite for grown-ups, and there are saddle-topped stools for the kids. Hot dogs, curly fries, and milk shakes are also available.

In a region known for artisanal sweets, this cozy candy shop set amid Madrid's string of galleries has earned a cult following for its imaginative edible works of art. Some of the more unusual creations include dark chocolate studded with hibiscus flowers, lemon, and ginger, and creamy white chocolate with lavender sugar and flecks of actual lavender.

Colorful gummies, circus peanuts, swirling lollipops, jelly beans, a chocolate lobster bake, homemade fudge, and much more fill the shelves and jars at this wacky fun candy store. Black-and-white patterns and bold colors combine in theatrical displays inside, outside, and in the store windows, making this shop front hard to miss.

Selling homemade candy apples, marshmallow sticks, popcorn, nuts, and giant lollipops for more than 75 years, this old-school corner candy shop with the yellow awning is a Coney Island mainstay. Owner Peter Agrapides used to visit the store with his mother when he was a kid; he's been the proud owner for over 30 years.