Entrepreneur Max Kolegue saved his San Francisco candy store – located in the historic Haight Street shopping district – a year after it caught fire, thanks to booming online sales and a surge in Swedish candy purchases.
The small shop named Candy’s, which specializes in imports and hard-to-find brands, suffered widespread damage when a random fire broke out on the morning of April 15, 2025. An official cause was never determined, but Kolegue suspects a discarded cigarette was responsible.
“I got a call from my upstairs neighbor asking if I was at the candy shop,” he said. “I was like, ‘No, I’m at home having breakfast.’ And she said, ‘Well, it’s on fire.’” The blaze caused thousands of dollars in damage and destroyed Kolegue’s entire inventory.
The entrepreneur might have been new to the candy industry, but he has spent the last decade and a half working in a variety of roles in the food and beverage industry, including PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz and more recently Keotone-IQ, which manufactures ketone-based energy drinks.
In the trenches
Kolegue purchased Candy’s almost a year to the day before the fire, and in addition to selling curated selections of candies, he also purchased bulk candy repackaged in Candy’s branded containers.
Kolegue made small tweaks to the business at first but then began selling on Amazon through online retail platform’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. FBA enables small manufacturers to ship product to Amazon warehouses where the company will fulfill orders automatically for a fee.
Candy’s started with about 50 pounds of candy, and it sold in about two weeks. The Swedish candy Bubs was such a big seller for the company that Kolegue said he struggled to keep it in stock.
Shortly before the fire, Candy’s sent its largest order to date to FBA, which helped the store stay in business after the fire, Kolegue explained.
“We finally got a big order, large enough to really support that demand, right before the fire,” he said. “We had like two and a half month’s worth of inventory at that time sent to Amazon, and luckily we were able to just ride that as we fixed up the inside and got back into business in late July of 2025.”
Swedish candy craze
The obsession with Swedish candy is the biggest trend he’s seen in the store, and many shoppers are looking for Bubs, produced by Swedish confectionery Bubs Godis, which was acquired by Orkla Confectionery & Snacks in 2022.
The skull-shaped gummy candies were popularized by social media influencers on TikTok in recent years and show no signs of slowing down, according to Kolegue. They are also popular in the store because of their cleaner label bona fides. The candies are vegan friendly and free from palm oil, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats and Red 40, according to Bubs’ website.
Swedish candies to lead the market?
Kolegue noted that although Google search trends show Swedish candy is cooling, he believes it will lead the market.
“The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of that market is going to double in the next couple of years,” he said. “I don’t think Swedish candy is going anywhere.”
Target rolled out better-for-you Sockerbit gummies at 1,600 locations in November.
