How a hat shop became a candy shop
Morris 'Moishe' Cohen opened the original shop in 1937 as a hat and shoe repair store. His brother Jerry sold candy from a pushcart in front of the store during the Depression to supplement the family income. The candy outsold the hats. By 1940 the brothers pivoted: the hat-and-shoe inventory was cleared out, the shelves were re-stocked with confectionery, and the sign was repainted to read 'Economy Candy.' The name was a Depression-era promise: bulk candy at a price the neighborhood could afford.
The shop survived World War II sugar rationing, the urban-blight years of the 1970s when the Lower East Side was at its lowest, the 1980s gentrification of the East Village to the north, the 2010s influx of bars and boutiques. In 1985 Moishe's son Jerry Cohen took over; in 2014, on the store's 75th anniversary, Jerry's son Mitchell stepped in. Skye Cohen — the fourth generation — has been at the register since high school. The shop has never closed for a full week. During Covid lockdown they switched to mail-order and a sidewalk pickup window.
What's actually inside — a partial inventory
Two thousand items is not a metaphor. The current count, as of the shop's 2024 inventory check, is roughly 2,300 SKUs. The catalog includes: every American chocolate bar made commercially since 1937 (the wall behind the register is the chocolate-bar wall, organized roughly chronologically); the full range of penny candies — Sugar Babies, Mary Janes, Necco Wafers, Atomic Fireballs, Bit-O-Honeys, candy buttons on paper strips, wax bottles, candy cigarettes (you can still buy these here; Economy Candy is one of the last shops in New York that stocks them); imported candy from twenty-three countries; sour candy in seventy varieties; gummi candy in fifty; nostalgia candy that has been discontinued by its original manufacturer and that Economy Candy has bought up the remaining inventory of (the C-section of the shop has Bonomo Turkish Taffy, Sky Bars, and Necco Wafers in stock years after the brands stopped making them).
Prices range from twenty-five cents for a single Mary Jane to $14 for a hand-decorated chocolate dreidel. The discipline of a first visit is to bring a small empty bag (or one of the shop's white paper bags), walk the aisles slowly, and pick fifteen things that mean something to you — one for every decade you have been alive, one for someone you remember, one you have never tried.
What to actually buy
Three categories that justify the visit. First, the candy you cannot get anywhere else: Sky Bars (a chocolate bar with four different filled compartments, made by NECCO until 2018, Economy Candy bought up the discontinued stock and is still selling it in 2026); Bonomo Turkish Taffy (out of production for years, Economy Candy keeps a deal with the trademark holder); Beemans, Black Jack and Clove gums (the three flavors of the original 1880s American gum line, still on the shelf).
Second, the imported chocolate: a wall of Cadbury Dairy Milk and Crunchies imported from the UK (the British version uses different milk solids and tastes meaningfully different from the American-made Dairy Milk), the Italian Baci, Spanish Conguitos, Japanese Kit-Kat flavors that don't reach American shelves, Australian Tim Tams.
Third, the Cohen-family curation: 'Mitchell's Picks' is a small shelf behind the register where the current proprietor puts the things he is personally enthusiastic about that month. The picks rotate every two to four weeks. They are the test of the shop — what a third-generation candy-store owner finds noteworthy in 2026 is itself a small editorial decision worth respecting.
When to come and what to expect
Economy Candy is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The two windows worth choosing: a quiet weekday morning (10:00 to 11:30, almost no one in the store, easy to ask Mitchell about the inventory), or Saturday late afternoon (4:00 to 6:00 p.m., crowded but cheerful, the entire neighborhood drops in).
Weekend afternoons can be packed enough that you have to wait for an aisle. A normal visit takes thirty to forty-five minutes; a thorough one takes ninety. Bring a small reusable bag — the white paper bags are charming but small. The shop accepts cards, no minimum. The credit-card terminal is on the same wooden counter where the cash register has sat since the 1960s.
Pair it with the rest of the Lower East Side
Pair the visit with the appetizing-shop walk: from Economy Candy at 108 Rivington, two blocks west and north to Russ & Daughters at 179 East Houston for a smoked-fish counter that has been at the same address since 1914. Or three blocks north to Katz's Delicatessen at 205 East Houston (opened 1888) for a pastrami sandwich. Or four blocks west to the Tenement Museum at 103 Orchard for the 12:30 tenement apartment tour. The Lower East Side has more multi-generational family shops in a six-block radius than anywhere else in the United States; Economy Candy is one of the four or five that have outlasted everything else.
Practical notes
- Address: 108 Rivington Street, between Essex and Ludlow, Lower East Side.
- Hours: Mon-Fri 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
- Best windows: weekday 10:00-11:30 a.m. (quiet, easy to ask questions) or Sat 4:00-6:00 p.m. (cheerful, busy).
- Average spend: $15-$40 for a thoughtful mixed bag.
- Look for: Sky Bars, Bonomo Turkish Taffy, Beemans / Black Jack / Clove gum, imported Cadbury, Mitchell's Picks shelf.
- Closest train: F to Delancey-Essex, two blocks west.
- Pair with: Russ & Daughters at 179 E Houston, Katz's at 205 E Houston, Tenement Museum at 103 Orchard.
- Online: economycandy.com ships nationwide if you want a sampler before you visit.
The odd edit on the Lower East Side is that one storefront has held the same family, the same wooden counter, and the same idea — sell every kind of candy to every kind of person who walks in — for eighty-nine years and counting. Mitchell Cohen is at the register most weekdays. The Sky Bars are on the wall. The candy your grandfather ate is on the third shelf to your left. Bring a small bag. Walk it twice.
Sources consulted: economycandy.com · en.wikipedia.org · tenement.org · ny.eater.com · nycgo.com
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