This Old-School Candy Shop In NYC Has Been A Local Mainstay For Nearly 90 Years

What began as a shoe and hat repair shop with a little candy cart outside during the Great Depression evolved to become NYC's longest-standing old-school candy shop. Manhattan's local Economy Candy might have the greatest business pivot story of all time. When the candy cart parked outside the Economy Shoe storefront started attracting more customers than the repair shop itself, the owner took the hint and followed the sweet success. He transformed the shop into Economy Candy in 1937, and the Cohen family took over after the end of World War II. Morris "Moishe" Cohen then passed the torch to his son, Jerry, and daughter-in-law, Ilene, in the '80s, and the couple ran the shop for more than 30 years before handing it down to their son, Mitchell, in 2013. Mitchell and his wife, Skye, have owned the candy emporium ever since.

At Economy Candy, you can shop the 2,000 available candy varieties by color, character, theme, and more. It is the go-to place for imported treats like Japanese Kit-Kats and hard-to-find and old-timey candies like the Narnia-famous Turkish Delights.

The old-timey candy shop persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown with creative to-go bags and "candy care packages" and has stood its ground in the face of tariffs in 2025. The store's continued success is in part thanks to social media. While the shop doesn't have the aesthetic appeal of Dylan's Candy Bar, it's got strategy and a great story to tell. The owners use product tagging on Facebook to make it easy for customers to jump from a drool-worthy photo to their online shop.

In 2023, Economy Candy opened its first additional location in Chelsea Market and was the runner-up for USA Today's Reader Choice Awards Best Candy Store in the U.S. (bested only by Bright's Candies, which we named the must-visit candy store for Washington State). Also in 2023, the store and its reigning family were honored in a major way when the city of New York decided to co-name the original store location, the corner of Rivington and Essex Streets, Morris "Moishe" Cohen Way.