Wichita candy store named 8th best nationally, but it’s probably not the one you think
Like most people, Gerika Wulf is skeptical of e-mails from people she doesn’t know, especially if they seem to involve some kind of marketing ploy.
So she ignored the first couple of e-mails she received about her Farris Wheel Candy Co. being nominated for best candy store nationally.
“I kind of thought, ‘OK, this is junk,’ ” she said.
The e-mails kept coming, though, suggesting that she tell her customers to vote for the store, so Wulf asked her husband and son to check them out.
“Is this, like, legit?” she asked them.
They determined it was. It was USA Today conducting the poll in which the Farris Wheel ended up being ranked No. 8 in the final tally.
“It’s easy to satisfy your sweet tooth in one fell swoop at this family-owned gourmet candy store in Wichita, Kansas,” the poll said. With trail mixes, chocolate and candy, it noted that “. . . The Farris Wheel isn’t lacking in choice. There’s plenty of retro candy here, too.”
Wulf doesn’t know who nominated her or the criteria judges used for picking winners.
In addition to beating a lot of stores nationally, Wulf obviously has a lot of competition in Wichita with Sweet ‘n Saucy in Delano, three Cocoa Dolce stores and the ever-popular Nifty Nut House, which some might have erroneously concluded would be the Wichita business in the USA Today ranking. It’s not clear if any of these other stores were nominated.
Wulf said they’re all great retailers.
“We all kind of have our own little niche,” she said. “I just kind of do my own thing.”
Her store, which Wulf purchased three years ago, is in Cambridge Market at the southeast corner of 21st and Webb Road.
The merchandise is all prepackaged.
“I believe in the products I sell,” Wulf said.
In the future, she said she also believes she’ll probably pay a little more attention to e-mails.
“Exactly.”
