Cheery yellow fencing and a large yellow dome grab the attention of anyone driving by an unusual store located outside of Minneapolis. In late summer and fall, it’s even more colorful with hundreds of apples, pumpkins and squash covering the grounds.
Called Jim’s Apple Store and Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store, the eclectic shop does indeed house the largest candy inventory in Minnesota as well as lots of locally grown produce.
The apple and candy businesses draw as many as 750,000 visitors during a 7-month season that stretches from Mother’s Day to Thanksgiving.
Customers come to the store to immerse themselves in 8,000 different kinds of candy. They can purchase anything from imported chocolates and nostalgic candy from the past to unique novelty candies that candy lovers would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
Pumpkins, squash, apples, baked goods, locally produced food items, 1,000 different sodas and 4,000 different jigsaw puzzles are also in stock.
While the candy business thrives, it was the apple business that paved the way for this venture and remains a big part of its attraction.
Small beginnings to megastore
The store began decades ago as a small apple shop in Jordan, Minnesota. Owner Robert Wagner’s father planted the first orchards and built the original store in 1960. Some of the trees in those orchards are still producing apples sold today.
In the 1990s, Robert’s father retired from a restaurant career and focused on his orchards and apple store. He added his own baked goods as well as jams and jellies to the inventory.
Robert, who had also worked in the restaurant and at the orchards, went to work full-time with his dad in 2000.
Everything was going well until nature intervened. Back-to-back hailstorms in 2005 and 2006 changed the trajectory of the business.
“There’s been this rule of thumb that an orchard gets hailed out every decade,” Robert says. “We had hail for two years in a row and then a smaller hailstorm in 2007. When those hailstorms hit, we took a financial blow and needed to think of other things. We tried a convenience store and then in 2008, we tried candy.”
Quickly, candy proved to be the economic boost the store needed, eclipsing the apple and bakery business.
“The problem with apples is customers can buy only one bag or apple pie because it’s perishable,” Robert says. “But people will buy candy for Christmas in July.
“My father and I believed the candy would be a stopgap measure to get us through the hailstorm period,” he adds.
“But my daughter, who was 14 or 15 at the time, just kept pushing the candy. I think having the enthusiasm of my two children and my wife, Renee, behind it was very important.”
Going big in candy
Much of the candy’s success was due to their aggressive stance on selling only unique candy that can’t be found at most stores. They buy directly from 300 candy companies.
“Candy sales are increasing, but along the way things are shaking out,” Robert says. “We’re seeing new ingredients like bacon and hot chocolate candy with jalapeno and habanero. We have interactive Japanese candy that children can use to make a sushi bowl or puzzle.”
The most unique candy that does well is candy with insects embedded in it. He says kids love to lick the candy down to the bug.
The same tactic used for candy is used for selecting sodas to sell at the store. They seek odd, fun, and unique ones. Bacon-flavored sodas outsell Pepsi in their store.
Robert credits the success of the candy and soda inventory to his family’s help. “My two children, Christine and Clayton, are still very involved,” he says. “They are both MDs but have a passion for the store. My daughter buys all the candy. My son does the long-term, big-picture planning and execution.”
Orchards rock solid
While candy sales are strong, the apple orchards remain a rock-solid business. Plus, it’s clear Robert enjoys working with the apples and orchards, even if it is a lot of work to prune and spray trees and pick apples by hand.
His father’s original orchard is still in operation with some trees that are 50-years-old. These trees are Haralson that were developed at the University of Minnesota. Known as a good baking apple, Haralson has a long maturity stretching from August to late October.
“A Haralson is a great tree for a farm site to have so they can have an apple every day,” Robert says. “Professional orchards don’t like that type. They want a one-pick apple where the entire tree ripens up at once.”
Robert added a second modern apple orchard with trees 3 feet apart to make picking and pruning easier. Totaled, they maintain 8,000 apple trees of 50 different varieties. The most popular are Haralson and Honeycrisp.
Pumpkins and squash
New Holland tractors are used throughout the orchard as well as in pumpkin and squash production, another important part of the store’s business. Last year, they sold 450 large bins of pumpkins and 60,000 pieces of squash.
Over the years, they battled bug issues in their squash plots and solved it with field rotation. Now they plant squash and pumpkins in a plot once every five years. They own two and rent three more plots for the rotation. In the off years, local farmers plant corn or soybeans in the plots.
Robert says they have experienced germination issues in squash. He now mixes 25 different types of squash seed in the planter, which helps reduce the problem. If one variety is suffering a germination issue, another variety will not be affected and will produce healthy produce. Most of the squash varieties are genetically similar so they all grow alike.
Using “volunteer” labor
“A huge challenge for us is labor,” Robert says. “We are mitigating the labor situation everywhere we can.”
They currently hire 150 employees: most work part-time. “We now pick the pumpkins with ‘volunteers’ like the football team,” Robert says. “We approach the team or any organization to bring their team out and we pay $10/hour for every person that picks pumpkins. We could never get the players to come out here on their own, but their coach can,” he adds with a grin.
Added-value products
Today, the store continues a baking tradition started by Robert’s parents. Several apple-based treats -- pies, strudel, apple bread and apple crisp — are available. Most of the products sell out daily.
The store has also become a place for locals to sell food products. One couple makes a Sloppy Joe mix and another makes yellow mustard. Several people bring locally produced honey and maple syrup to sell.
“We work with these folks because it is extremely difficult to make a product and get it into a grocery store,” Robert says. “They can bring their product line here, and we sell it. It’s part of what we do to support the local community that supports us.”