The British sweet shop has gone from a shopkeeper weighing sweets on brass scales to self-service pick 'n' mix stands, and back again in a slightly different form.
The jar-behind-the-counter era
Before self-service existed, British sweet shops worked entirely through the shopkeeper. Sweets sat in glass jars lined up behind the counter, and a customer would ask for a quantity, an ounce, a quarter, which the shopkeeper weighed out on brass scales and tipped into a paper bag or twisted paper cone.
Woolworths and the arrival of pick 'n' mix
The shift to self-service is generally traced to Woolworths, which popularised letting customers select their own sweets from open trays into a bag from around the 1930s. It moved the decision-making from the shopkeeper to the shopper, and the format has barely changed in principle since.
Decimalisation and the death of the penny sweet
1971's switch to decimal currency reshaped sweet pricing across the country, phasing out the old shillings-and-pence system that terms like penny sweets and ha'penny chews came from. Combined with the growth of supermarkets through the 1960s to 1980s, which moved most sweet sales onto pre-packaged shelves, independent sweet shops relying on loose jars became far less common.
The pick 'n' mix revival
Rather than disappearing, pick 'n' mix found new homes, cinema foyers, garden centres, and dedicated retro sweet shops all kept the format alive, helped along from the 1990s onward by growing nostalgia for the sweets people grew up with. That's the same tradition our own pick 'n' mix and retro sweets ranges sit within today.
Frequently asked questions
When did pick 'n' mix start in the UK?
Self-serve pick 'n' mix became widespread in the UK from around the 1930s, when Woolworths popularised the format, letting customers choose their own loose sweets into a bag rather than being served individually by a shopkeeper from jars behind the counter.
How were sweets sold before pick 'n' mix?
Traditional Victorian and Edwardian sweet shops kept loose sweets in glass jars behind the counter, weighed out on brass scales by the ounce or quarter and served by a shop assistant rather than chosen directly by the customer.
Why did traditional sweet shops decline?
The rise of supermarkets from the 1960s onward shifted most sweet sales onto pre-packaged supermarket shelves, and decimalisation in 1971 further changed how sweets were priced, both of which reduced the number of independent sweet shops relying on the old jar-and-scale model.