The Candy Store on Main Street in Tiburon has served the community since February 1997 as a local attraction, garnering visitors from all over the Bay Area. However, The Candy Store will permanently close its doors on April 30, 2024, due to rent increase.
Senior Aidan O’Connor has been working at the Candy Store on Main Street for over a year. He feels disappointed that the rising rent on Main Street has resulted in the store’s closing.
“[The landlords] are raising [the] rent [by] 40 percent because they want new businesses downtown,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor’s boss, Jennifer Torres, has been keeping the store running. Torres has owned the Candy store since 2015 and refuses to give up without a fight.
“[Torres] has been trying to negotiate with the landlord here for the last couple of months, but it hasn’t worked out – it’s just too expensive now for a candy business in Tiburon,” O’Connor said.
Growing up,Tiburon resident Sadie Saavedra visited the Candy Store on Main Street frequently. Saavedra, who believes The Candy Store on Main Street has created a special place in the community’s heart, is devastated at the news of the store closing.
“When I heard the [Candy Store on Main Street] was closing, I was shocked and disappointed. You just don’t believe a store like that will ever close since it’s been a part of everyone’s childhood,” Saavedra said.
The rise in rent in Tiburon has had a similar effect on many stores, especially in recent years. A Strawberry ice cream store, Woody’s Yogurt Place, was another nostalgic stop for many of the same kids who visited the Candy Store on Main Street. It was open from 2001 to 2020 and was also forced to close due to the landlord raising the rent price, until it was too high for the business to pay. In replacement of Woody’s Yogurt Place was another ice cream store named Noble Cow Creamery. However, the Noble Cow closed in 2023 because of the same rent issues, causing this cycle to repeat again.
Laleh Zelinsky is a landlord who oversees many of the Candy Store on Main Street surrounding properties. Zelinsky Properties own most of Ark Row, the street adjacent to Main Street, amongst other buildings. Zelinsky doesn’t own the Candy Store, but as a Belvedere resident and a property owner, has spent time in the store.
“I am sorry to see the Candy Store is closing. I know firsthand and from experience that nothing lasts forever. The Candy store used to be our tenant before our partition between my sister-in-law and myself in 2007. The town was a different place then,” Zelinsky said.
“Some people around here are organizing a fundraiser to help keep the [candy] store open, but I don’t think this will work,” O’Connor said. “Maybe short term but it just becomes way too expensive to stay open here. It’s also hard, especially during the winter. Not around Christmas but in early December there are entire shifts where no one walks in.”
The problem of increased rent affects the entire community. Following April 30, there aren’t any stores on Main Street for kids, taking away the family appeal the street once had.
“It’s sad that the rent has had such an impact on so many of our childhood stores when the landlords can easily compensate for the historic businesses,” Saavedra said. “It’s even more sad that kids today won’t get to experience the fun we had on those Friday Nights on Main.”
