CLEVELAND — For Tom Scheiman, candy is the way of life. In fact, if anyone ever needs a recommendation, he has them covered.

"A Chunky candy bar probably because that's my favorite candy bar and a lot of people don't know what it is," said Scheiman, owner of b.a. Sweetie Candy Company.


What You Need To Know

  • The viral Facebook post has been shared more than 61,000 times, has more than 1,000 comments, and 7,000 likes

  • 7,000 guests visited b.a. Sweetie Candy Company after the post went viral

  • Customers came from multiple states like North Carolina, Indiana, and Michigan after the viral post

Scheiman has owned b. a. Sweetie Candy Company since 1982. He said January is usually a slow month for the store, so when customers began to fill the store to COVID-19 capacity, he knew something was up.

"All of the sudden, it's like 'what happened here?'” he said. “So we investigated and found out where the source was and, like, wow this is incredible. This is absolutely amazing."

Scheiman's store was flocked with customers after another customer posted on Facebook sharing her experience at the biggest candy store in the country. The post went viral, now having more than 1,000 likes, 7,000 comments, and being shared more than 61,000 times.

"Over a weekend, we had over 7,000 people in the store which was crazy,” he said. “We had to limit people from coming in."

Dee Wilson-Bushone and her husband, Mark, are two people who spent their Saturday morning browsing the aisles of the candy store. She said the Facebook post is what brought them in.

"Solely because we saw the Facebook post and I am a huge candy lover mainly chocolate,” she said. “This place is heaven.”

Wilson-Bushone and her husband drove about two hours to the store. She said they were so excited they skipped an important start to the day.

"Extremely. We didn't even eat,” she said. “We drove all the way from Columbus and this is our very first stop."

Scheiman said the first weekend after the post went viral there was a line outside the store for five hours. He said half the customers that weekend were from out of town.

"Customers were coming from North Carolina, from Kentucky, from Indiana, a lot from Michigan, a lot from Pennsylvania," he said.

While things have slowed back down a bit, Scheiman is grateful for the post the customer made that drove business to his store.

"She's got candy for life! Yeah, and thank you being honest on her post,” he said. “You know, she did 24 different pictures and was honest and she just absolutely loved the place."