Sweet Spot On Town Square - Sugar Makery Making Move To Former Kaiman's Building

Popcorn, candy and ice cream lovers in Glenwood got some sweet news last week.

Owners of the Sugar Makery are planning to relocate and expand  their popular sweet shop to the former Kaiman’s grocery store building in 2027.

Malcom and Alexis McCue assumed ownership of the building Thursday.

“It’s probably officially been in the works for a couple months,” said Alexis McCue. “We tried to keep it really quiet in case it didn’t happen.”

The building at 423 Sharp St., has been unoccupied since the closure of the Family Fare grocery store in February 2025. The two-story structure is known locally as the “Kaiman building” in reference to the Kaiman family that operated a grocery store at the location from 1921-2007.

The move by Sugar Makery will not only fill a visible retail void on the south side of Town Square, but it will also allow the McCues to consolidate their store and production kitchen under one roof. The retail store is currently located at 204 Sharp St. and the production kitchen is at 514 First St.

“The shop over there is roughly 1,800 square feet and the production kitchen is roughly 1,500 square feet,” said Malcom McCue. “So, we’ll go from about 3,300 square feet to about 10,400 square feet.

“We’re out of space. so were facing the dilemma of adding on (to existing store) or moving our production to Council Bluffs, but Glenwood has been very good in supporting us.”

Consideration was also given to moving into space at the Glenwood shopping plaza vacated by Russ’s Market when that grocery store moved to its new location in 2024, but the spacious location on the south side of Town Square made the most sense.

“We really do want to support the community that supports us,” Alexis noted. “Like Malcom said, we could have looked at Council Bluffs for a bigger production facility, but staying in the heart of Glenwood is really important to us.

“We love the history of it (building) and everything we can bring with it. We want to tip our cap to the Kaimans – they were here for a long time and a tremendous staple in our community.”

One of the items the McCues found in the building is a hand-held Kaiman’s shopping basket. Alexis said she’s heard from people who remember getting a candy “safety pop” sucker from Harold or Jerry Kaiman when shopping at the store.

“I saw this basket and thought, ‘Oh my, we can fill this with safety pops,’” she said.

The McCues opened their Glenwood sweet shop in 2017. The business has evolved and grown over nine years, making a name for itself in the region. Since 2017, the McCues have opened additional Sugar Makery sweet shops in Council Bluffs and Shenandoah and have developed an ever-growing online customer base. 

Sugar Makery features a wide variety of sweets, ranging from taffy and chocolates to fudge and retro candies many adults remember enjoying as children. There’s also over a hundred flavors of retro soda pops, locally-made hand-packed ice cream, a dessert counter, custom-made cakes and over 50 flavors of famous Sugar Makery popcorn.

Ice cream, candies and popcorn are made in the Sugar Makery production kitchen, and the move to the new location will allow the McCues to fulfill a dream they’ve had since Day 1 – having production on display for their customers.

“I have always had a desire, and I think Malcom, too, of having production on display. That was always a dream of mine,” said Alexis. “We want to make candy in front of you. We want you to see your candy being made. Our intention is to have almost all of our production on display. We have nothing to hide, except our recipes.”

The McCues plan to incorporate some working antique candy making equipment into their operation, including a candy stove from the 1940s and  a nearly century-old candy cooling table.

Alexis noted they’ve also recently acquired two large chocolate enrobers – a candy making conveyer similar to the one Lucy and Ethel had difficulty keeping up with in a famous episode of the “I Love Lucy” television show.

“It’s basically a conveyer that you put a piece of caramel on then it goes through a curtain of chocolate and comes out the other side and goes through a cooling tunnel,” she said.

She envisions one of the enrobers being in the back room (the former produce area of the grocery store) for making caramels and popcorn. The other enrober will be in the front of the store where candies, peanut brittle and almond butter toffee will be made.

“Seeing candy made, I think will be a game changer,” said Alexis. “We’re excited that we can bring something like that to Glenwood.”

The McCues know renovating the century-plus old building will take hours of planning and work, but they’re excited for the opportunities ahead.

“The inspiration is in our new marketing and tag line – we’re going to be  Iowa’s largest small-batch candy factory,” Malcom said. “We’ll never be Palmer Candy (Sioux City – they’re the largest candy manufacturer – candy factory. We’ll be the largest small-batch factory.”

Glenwood Mayor Angie Winquist said she’s happy for the McCues and appreciative of their investment in the Glenwood community.

“I’m excited to see a local business like this growing,” she said. “They’re still investing in our community. To move to a larger location, that’s a great reflection on their confidence that they have with us and their future.

“I congratulate them. I think it’s wonderful. I appreciate their continued commitment to our community. I’m looking forward to seeing them thrive in that new location.”