Ellington

Nandy's Candy Store looks exactly how an old-fashioned candy store should. The floors are old hardwood, and the only thing that keeps customers from reaching their hands right in and grabbing whichever sweet confection tempts them is the domed glass over the display case. And as one of the customers who walks in on a lazy Saturday morning says, the place smells so sweet and sugary, "I probably gained five pounds just from breathing the air." Nancy V. King, the owner of Nandy's, wouldn't have it any other way.

When the Kansas-born, Texas-reared King first opened the store 26 years ago, there weren't any other gourmet candy stores in the Jackson area. While that's no longer the case, King isn't fazed. "I don't compete against other candy stores," she says. "I compete against anything that's a 'gift' and against myself." The best way she's found to handle this is to stick to what she knows. Ever since King opened the store, she's been using the same candy formula—not recipe, anyone can use a recipe, she says—that she developed under the apprenticeship of Robert Kegg back home in Houston. Customers can expect quality candies and folks who are excited to help them immediately after they darken the door. Especially at Valentine's Day.

"I'm going to be swamped from (Feb. 9) until the 15th or 16th … especially from the 12th until 6 p.m. on the 14th. I hire a security guard to help keep the traffic going, and I'll have people coming in to work all night long both nights." King says her husband and two daughters used to come up to the store with her and spend the night camped out in sleeping bags, but thankfully, she's gotten through those times. King, 58, says she would gladly suffer such hardships again to build her dream.

Doing it all over again means more than camping on the floor and overcoming a couple of financial mishaps. It also means that King has no regrets about opening her shop in Jackson. When she started, there weren't many women going back to school to pursue advanced degrees, much less opening businesses of their own, so she had to fight to establish her credibility as a businesswoman. Still, she credits the people of Jackson for giving her so much support.

"I know there are (towns) outside of Jackson that are booming, but I'm the type of girl who goes home at the end of the night with the guy who brought her to the dance," King says. "The people in the city believed in me, and they still do. That's why it hurts me to hear people talk (bad) about Jackson. I've been through everything here, and through it all, we're just all working to be better neighbors."

Previous Comments

ID

82563

Comment

I love candy from Nandy's. I don't simply smell the "sweet and sugary" scent of the store: I eat myself choclate crazy at times and have the lbs. to prove it. (smile - yet serious).

Author

justjess

Date

2007-02-12T11:43:58-06:00

ID

82564

Comment

I'll tell you another nice thing about her that you guys don't know. When she ran for the legislature, she returned her left over campaign funds. Her opponent kept a VERY nice sized war chest. She is a classy lady that has served me for years at her store.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-02-12T22:36:50-06:00