SIOUX CITY | P is for Palmer Candy.
It can also stand for "Perfect place."
That's the kind of description you get from Jim and Joyce Young, of Monroe, Michigan, who make a pit-stop (the letter "P" you see) at Palmer's Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe every time they return to Sioux City.
"You can't get Twin Bings in Michigan," Joyce said. "Maybe writing a story about this will help."
The Youngs, like tens of thousands of other current and former Sioux City residents, make sweet tracks to the shop at Wesley Parkway, an 11-year-old facility that features a sales floor, museum/video wing, landing area and specialty shop. Rows and rows of chocolate-covered everything bring smiles to shoppers from all over the country, if not the world.
Former President Bill Clinton visited and satisfied his sweet-tooth after a November 2016 campaign stop in Sioux City.
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On a recent June morning, Jon Sadler, manager at Palmer's Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe, shook his head in disbelief at the dozens of customers roaming the sales floor.
"When it's 90 degrees outside, we should not be this busy," Sadler said, echoing comments he's heard from those who work in his line of business. "And yet, we've got 72 people stopping here today at 4 p.m."
Sadler said the modern standard at Palmer's took place when 150 customers showed up at the same time. Sadler did what he could to keep everyone happy; part of the group watched a 12-minute video detailing the history of the Palmer Candy Company, which was founded in 1878. The other half roamed the aisles, relaxed in the landing area (near antique chocolate-making machines) or browsed selections in the specialty shop.
"There are times when the parking lot is full and there's not one Woodbury County license plate represented," Sadler said.
This site, he contended, rates tops in Sioux City for hometown tourists.
The Youngs would agree. It's a must for them to stop every time they return to their hometown. Other family members, they said, make that part of their standard operating procedure as well.
The Palmer Candy Company began in 1878 when a fire destroyed the dry good store of Edward Cook Palmer in St. Joseph, Michigan. Rather than rebuilding, Palmer packed up his family and moved to the blossoming frontier town of Sioux City, Iowa. Palmer bought a wholesale grocery operation and with it came a fruit and confections line.
Palmer expanded the candy manufacturing end and began selling bulk and hard candy out of wooden containers in the back of their fruit house. In 1900, the company established a new location at 209 Douglas St.
The firm reached a new level in 1923 with the introduction of Palmer Candy's Bing candy bar, still a Midwest favorite.
Other expansions would follow resulting in production in two Sioux City factories and, in 2007, the relocation of Palmer's Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe to a 1931 Art Deco building at 405 Wesley Parkway.
