Candy time ending soon at Warehouse Confectionery

For four decades, it’s been candy time at Warehouse Confectionery in downtown St. Charles.

That time will soon be coming to an end. The store, located at 16 N. Riverside Ave., will close its doors Dec. 31.

“It’s melancholy to let it go, but it’s also time,” said St. Charles resident Alec Wittum, who owns the store with his wife, Mari Wittum.

All candy in the store is 50% off. Right next to the Warehouse Confectionery is Warehouse Antiques, which Mari Wittum’s parents, Peggy and Jim Spear, opened in 1972.

Her dad, a golf course architect and longtime member of the St. Charles Plan Commission, passed away in 2010 and her mother, who also volunteered at Davis School Library and the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce, passed away in 2020.

While the Warehouse Confectionery is closing, the other businesses in the building will remain open, including Bliss Practice, Mari Wittum’s psychotherapy practice, as well as Greenleaf Yoga Studio. She is one of the co-founders of Suicide Prevention Services in Batavia.

Warehouse Antiques will be open by appointment only.

“It’s going to be open when I’m in town basically,” Alec Wittum said. “We’re going to do a lot of traveling.”

The couple recently purchased a motor home. He retired about a year and a half ago as a special education teacher at Geneva High School.

Warehouse Confectionery is the oldest candy store in St. Charles. In 1982, Mari Wittum and her husband started renting space from her parents for the Warehouse Confectionery. They were both still in college at the time.

Prior to opening the store, they would make and sell candy wholesale to places like Sonny Acres Farm in West Chicago. Alec Wittum learned how to make candy while working at Long Grove Confectionery.

“I learned candy making from an old guy by the name of George,” Alec Wittum said. “George created all the recipes for most of the candy companies around here.”

Mari Wittum, who was born and raised in St. Charles, has fond memories of visiting the Candy Jar in downtown St. Charles as a youngster.

“I wanted to bring back that kind of memory for kids,” she said in talking about the reasons for opening Warehouse Confectionery.

Generations of families have passed through the store over the years.

“People who were coming in as kids are now bringing their grandkids,” Alec Wittum said.

Those scanning the shelves are likely to rediscover their favorite childhood candy, be it Necco Wafers or candy buttons. Mari Wittum favors malted milk balls.

“You can eat one and be satisfied,” she said. “That’s probably my favorite. But I’m a candy lover anyway. When I was a kid, I had a drawer that was called the candy drawer. I could go in that drawer and pick out whatever candy I would want.”

Their customers are sad to hear the store will soon be closing its doors.

“People are coming in and reminiscing,” Alec Wittum said. “I think they are processing the loss of an old friend.”