The hardest part was choosing.
With a few coins in your hand and a counter full of sweets in front of you, every purchase felt like a decision. Something chewy might last longer. A chocolate bar could be divided into pieces. Candy Buttons gave you a whole strip to work through, even if a little paper sometimes came with them.
These dime store candies were more than familiar flavors. They came with wrappers, textures, little rituals, and sometimes prizes that made them easy to remember decades later.
Several names below still appear on manufacturers’ websites. That does not mean every shop carries them or that every recipe is unchanged. But disappearing from your usual store and disappearing altogether are two different things.
1. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate and the nickel bar
For generations, a Hershey’s bar and a nickel belonged together.
The Hershey Community Archives dates the standard milk-chocolate bar’s five-cent price to 1900, a tradition that continued until 1969. Keeping that price did not mean keeping the bar the same size. As cocoa costs changed, Hershey adjusted its weight.
The coin in your hand could stay the same while the amount of chocolate changed.
Hershey’s is hardly a forgotten name. What has become a memory is the nickel purchase: walking up to the counter knowing one small coin would cover your chocolate bar.
2. Candy Buttons and the paper strip
Few sweets were as recognizable as rows of colored sugar dots attached to paper.
You could work along a row, pick a favorite color, or try to remove every button without taking the paper with it. The candy was simple; eating it gave you something to do.
Doscher’s lists Candy Buttons in its range, including the familiar paper-strip format.
Their appeal is easy to understand. A strip looked generous in a child’s hand, and each little dot offered another bite. It was a treat you could inspect, count, and stretch out rather than finish in one mouthful.
3. Sugar Daddy: caramel on a stick
A Sugar Daddy was a commitment to caramel.
The firm, chewy candy came on a stick, making it different from a chocolate bar you could snap into squares. Its name was part of the fun, although it did not begin with that name.
Tootsie’s history dates it to 1925, when it was called the Papa Sucker. The Sugar Daddy name followed in 1932. It remains listed among the company’s candies.
At the counter, a treat that took a while to eat had an advantage. You were deciding not only what tasted good, but how long your coins would keep you occupied.
4. Charleston Chew and its unmistakable texture
Charleston Chew belonged to the chewy end of the candy counter: a nougat center inside a chocolaty coating.
For some people, the memory is pulling off a bite. For others, it is putting the bar in the freezer and enjoying it cold. The way you ate it could become almost as familiar as the wrapper.
Tootsie continues to list Charleston Chew products. It is another example of a childhood candy that survived beyond the stores where many people first bought it.
You may have stopped seeing a favorite when your local dime store closed, even though the brand continued elsewhere.
5. Chick-O-Stick and the peanut-and-coconut crunch
Chick-O-Stick offered a different choice from the rows of chocolate bars: a crunchy peanut-and-toasted-coconut sweet.
Its distinctive texture made it easy to recognize. People could remember it by the way it broke apart, not just by its name.
Atkinson Candy still lists Chick-O-Stick in its range. Checking the maker’s website is a useful starting point if you want to find an old favorite again.
Sometimes finding the name is satisfying on its own. It gives you something definite to attach to a memory that might otherwise be no more than “that crunchy candy I used to buy.”
6. Mary Jane and a familiar chewy flavor
Mary Jane belonged to the peanut-butter-and-molasses side of the counter.
It was a small chewy sweet rather than a grand chocolate bar. For people who liked that combination, its size did not make it forgettable.
Atkinson lists Mary Jane among its brands today. Packaging and formats may differ from what a shopper remembers, so finding the name is not a promise of an identical childhood experience.
Smaller candies were part of the pleasure of choosing. Several individually wrapped pieces could feel like a different purchase from spending the same money on one larger treat.
7. Mallo Cups and the play money inside
Mallo Cups combined chocolate, marshmallow filling, and coconut. They also offered something beyond the candy: play money that customers collected.
That extra gave the package a second life. After the sweet was gone, there was still a piece to keep or add to a growing collection.
Boyer lists Mallo Cups and maintains a play-money redemption page. If you plan to redeem pieces, check the current instructions rather than rely on rules remembered from childhood.
For many customers, the memory is counting what they had saved and wondering how soon they would have enough.
8. Razzles: the candy that turned into gum
Razzles made the change itself part of the attraction.
You began with a small candy, then kept chewing as it became gum. It gave children something to explain to anyone who had never tried it.
Tootsie dates the introduction to 1966 and continues to list Razzles. Unlike several older names here, Razzles arrived during the decade many viewers remember from their dime-store childhoods.
A different texture, an unusual package, or a small surprise could be enough to make one sweet the choice that day.
Why choosing candy became such a strong memory
Candy was often one of the first things children could choose for themselves.
The amount of money might have been small, but the decision was yours. You could buy a favorite, try something different, or spend several minutes weighing the options while an adult waited nearby.
Remembering the sweet can bring back the rest of the scene: the counter, the person you went with, the walk home, and the care you took with whatever was left in the wrapper.
That makes a useful family question. Instead of simply asking someone what childhood was like, ask which candy they bought and where they bought it. The store name often leads to another story.
Finding an old favorite again
Manufacturer links below are a starting point, not a guarantee of local stock. Product availability, packaging, and recipes can change.
The brand listings in this article were checked in October 2026. Before buying, check the current product description rather than assuming an old name means everything is exactly as you remember.
Watch the full candy-counter video
For more favorites and their stories, watch 30 Forgotten Dime Store Candies Every 1960s Kid Bought.
Which candy would you choose first—and which store sold it? Tell us in the comments on the video.
Sources and further reading
- Hershey Community Archives: Milk Chocolate Bar Wrappers Over the Years.
- Doscher’s Candy Buttons.
- Tootsie: Sugar Daddy and Charleston Chew.
- Atkinson Candy — Chick-O-Stick and Mary Jane listings.
- Boyer: Mallo Cups and Play Money Redemption.
- Tootsie: Razzles Original.