Schimpff’s Confectionery: Sweetly Successful Since 1891 (Jeffersonville, Indiana)

Warren Schimpff is torn between the English toffee and the bourbon balls.
Jill Schimff is certain about the dark chocolate peanut cluster with the vanilla creme center.
But while they differ on their favorite candies, the husband and wife team is of one mind on how to keep Schimpff’s Confectionery in downtown Jeffersonville a sweetly successful business.

Jill and Warren Pouring hot candy mix

One of the oldest, continuously operated, family-owned businesses in the United States (the oldest at the same site) G.A. Schimpff’s Confectionery opened at its present location in 1891 under Gustav Schimpff,Sr. and Jr., themselves a line of Schimpffs who had been making sweets in Clark County’s Jeffersonville since 1871 and in Louisville since the 1850’s.

Four generations later, in 1990 Warren Schimpff – whose father was among several Schimpffs born in the building – acquired the business with wife Jill in time to celebrate its centennial anniversary.

“We’ve survived floods, depressions and recessions, illness and wars” the couple says. “And we can say it didn’t die on our watch. ”

Indeed, Schimpff’s faithful customers were committed to its survival. When World War sugar rations threatened production, customers would exchange ration cards for sweets. In turn, when downtown Jeffersonville faced a business exodus to surrounding strip malls, Schimpff’s stayed to see the neighborhood revive.

Schimpffs Store Front on Spring Street Jeffersonville, IN

“We stuck it out through thick and thin while a lot of businesses didn’t.” says Jill, praising an asset of the location just across the river from Louisville: “We have the small town atmosphere and are next to a metropolitan area with a huge pool of people.”

The Great Depression had an interesting effect that seems to be echoed in today’s hard economic times. Says Warren, “The candy and sweet business made it because people want to treat themselves to a small luxury, and that is somewhat holding true today. Our off-the-street business is the same if not more due to the downturn in the economy.”

It was during the depression that a lunch area was added at the back of the store. Even those who don’t “need” candy need food, went the theory.
In 2001 was added a demonstration area and candy “museum,” of which tours are provided as popularized – among other places – on the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” show.

The Candy Museum

The tours are free, but “People can’t leave a candy store without buying something,” winks Warren, a doctoral research chemist who says he went from water chemistry to carbohydrate chemistry. And who can walk past a woman dipping chocolates in the window without stopping to taste her wares?

Along with the store’s signature red hots, Schimpff’s keeps up with trends. The health benefits of antioxidants have been a tremendous boost to dark chocolate sales, while white chocolate anything sugar free is on the rise as well.

“People’s tastes are getting more sophisticated.” says Warren. “Palates have changed a little bit and there’s more variety.”

Both Warren and Jill, the primary hard-candy cooks, acknowledge that they needed to branch out for success.
“Maybe 85 percent of what goes out the door is made here,” says Jill,  ”but to be a full-scale candy store you have to have jelly beans and bridge mix and chocolate covered peanuts that people are used to.”

The Candy Shop

“We went into this to some extent because it wasn’t just business, it was trying to keep a piece of history and a piece of the family alive,” says Warren.
“To keep Schimpff’s on Spring Street and to help Spring Street and Jeffersonville with its downtown.”
“And to be an anchor in downtown Jeffersonville,” adds Jill. “All the years of our survival is certainly due in part to a very, very supportive community that wanted to keep something like this alive because it’s a part of their identity.”

” In general we know that our customer base isn’t into change. They’re into nostalgia and old standbys. Although we do have an assortment that’s attractive to children, in general we are into tradition and nostalgia and it works. We’re trying to keep a good thing going.”

VISIT THE SCHIMPFF”S CONFECTIONERY WEBSITE HERE

(Article previously published Spring 2009/ Southern Indiana Business Source (Premiere Issue) under the title “Models of Posterity – Schimpff’s Confectionery“)

(Photos:  Jill and Warren Schimpff)

Tags: candy nostalgia, Indiana, Jeffersonville candy shop, Jill and Warren Schimpff, oldest candy shop in U.S.A., Schimpff's Confectionery, since 1891, sweetly successful candy shop