After dreaming about the shop since she was a little girl, a woman has finally opened her own candy store.
Zoe Barnes is a 44-year-old from Kent, England, who grew up frequently visiting a local chocolate shop near her home.
Barnes told SWNS, the British news service, that if she had been « good » all week, she was allowed to go in for a few sweet treats.
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« If I had been good at school all week, I was allowed to go to the sweet shop on a Friday and get a treat, » she said.
Barnes said the local shop closed, unfortunately, when she was a teenager — but that the childhood memory of visiting the store never left her mind.
The beauty therapist lost her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and was unable to work, according to SWNS.
After feeling a nudge to start creating her own sweets in Nov. 2022, Barnes decided to sell some of her « retro » sweets online.
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« I started doing pick ‘n’ mix for children, [plus] party cones — [and] then I moved onto weddings, christenings and gender reveals, » she explained to SWNS.
This March, however, Barnes noticed that a local spot that used to house a newspaper company was available for rent.
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« I booked an appointment to view it the day after I drove past and saw it had been put up for [rent], » she said.
Two months later, Barnes opened her own sweets shop called Retro Zo’s Sweets — just around the corner from the one she used to frequent as a little girl.
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« I’ve always wanted my own sweet shop — it’s always been my dream, » she told SWNS.
The store offers the typical sweets that Barnes was offering via her online shop, as well as an old-fashioned feel for customers to experience in person.
« The response so far has been so positive. I’ve got my regulars, and they’ll come in after school and on Saturdays. You have parents and grandparents bringing them in, » she added.
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Barnes said the feeling of finally opening her own candy shop has been « very surreal. »
She continued, « I still walk in some days and turn the lights on and look around thinking, ‘I’ve actually fulfilled my dream.’ »
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Fox News Digital reached out to Barnes for further comment.