Here’s the scoop:

Tom and I are purchasing a funky card shop in Portland…right around the corner from Old Port Candy Co.! We are excited and can’t wait to start our new endeavor.

…But we’re having trouble coming up with a name. The store already exists, but we want to give it a fresh start.

For those of you in Portland, you know the store as “Communiques”.

For my friends in Vermont…think “Paper Peddler”.

If you’re not familiar with either one of those stores, let us tell you a little bit about it. 

•  Awesome card selection featuring local artists
• Funky, cool, “just-off-the-beaten-path” greeting cards
• Gift wrap, gift bags, tissue, paper by the piece…
• Balloons and party supplies
• Paper goods; party plates, napkins, etc…
• Candy! Of course!! (Don’t worry, just a good sampling…full stash will remain at Old Port Candy!!)
• Awesome novelties & wacky gag gifts
• Cool office supplies
• Stickers, sticker books
• Tons of magnets & buttons
• Wind-up toys
• Journals
• Note pads, boxed note cards
• Stationery

Boy…I’m sure there will be so much more…but we want to hear from you! Just like the candy store, we plan to grow our product line based on your requests. Nine years ago when Old Port Candy started, we had at least half the product selection we have now. It has been because of all of our customers that we have grown our selection to what it is today!

So we need to hear from you! What products would you like to see in our new shop? .

And most of all…please vote for a name for our new shop - there is a poll on the lower right-hand side of this page!! And if you have a better name than the ones we’ve come up with, please tell us!! We’ve love to hear your ideas!

Here are some pics of the new shop…we’re not in there yet, but hope to be within the month!

I’m going to tell my Twitter-tale which includes our (yours & mine) love of our new Chocolate-Dipped Bacon.

 Hey, who doesn’t love bacon? If loving bacon is wrong, I don’t wanna be right…I should stop now.

Chocolate-Filled Velvet Hearts

Chocolate-Dipped Peeps
(I “heart” U)

Caramel-Filled,
Chocolate-Covered
Pretzels

And here are some pictures of the store…

We have our traditional velvet heart boxes - and I have to say, they are the best heart boxes I’ve ever found! You’d think at Valentine’s Day there would be a bounty of velvet heart boxes to choose from…but there isn’t. Or they have too many bows, bells, ruffles…too much. I love my velvet boxes, and I hope you do too.

And we also have super cute polka dot heart boxes - pretty pink with chocolate brown polka dots - can’t go wrong with this combo!

And new this year, we have some beautiful, organic paper boxes - you have to see them! And we have made some of the best assortments…if you ask me. My favorite this year is a red square box with nine “compartments”. We filled them with truffles, as well as Jelly Belly’s, Gummi Bears, Mini m&m’s, and Espresso Beans. Yum!

I can barely keep the bacon bars in stock. Actually I can’t. I’ve been sold out for some time. Just got a new stash in today.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about…Mo’s Bacon Bars, made by Vosges. They are the hottest thing on the market…er…the candy market these days.

Don’t be afraid. It’s just enough, not too much. Bacon. Perfect little bits. The right amount of texture and the perfect saltiness.

And there’s more. Vosges is a great company! They are in Chicago. And I just had an excellent experience with them. I had trouble getting my Bacon bars from my regular distributor, so I tweeted about this. Well, to my surprise, on a Saturday evening, @vosges tweeted me back!

From our mere little Twitter exchange, I am now ordering direct, getting faster delivery, and better pricing…which I’m able to pass down to my customer.

I am delighted. Now I’m going to eat a some bacon…and chocolate.

We’re expecting our Velvet & Satin heart boxes to be arriving any day now, and can’t wait to begin filling them with truffles. We’ll also be making our popular chocolate & fudge dipped strawberries.

This year, Valentine’s day falls on a Sunday. We want to make sure our favorite holiday doesn’t get lost on a Sunday…so we’re preparing lots of specials for in-town Portland deliveries on Saturday & Sunday.

Additionally, this year, President’s Day is on February 15th, the Monday following V-Day. So, folks will hopefully have a 3-day weekend. All this makes me wonder what day will everyone be celebrating? Date nights on Friday & Saturday…maybe Sunday too? Lot’s of Sunday brunches? So many choices! Even though this will be our 9th Valentine’s Day at OPC, we’ve never had this holiday fall on a Sunday…it was leap year last time!

Regardless, we can’t wait. The new Valentine’s window display is going up today, and we’re already beginning to packaged lots of Love-ly goodies!!

This year we promoted our Corporate Gift Boxes and they were a great hit! We had some really good feedback, folks seemed to like how it easy it was to make a choice, adjustments, etc. So we’re hoping to continue with our line of gift boxes throughout the year!

If you get a chance, check out our Gift Boxes page of our website…

Please come down and do some holiday shopping while supporting a great cause! All participating businesses (List of participating businesses) will be donating a portion of Saturday’s sales to The Florence House.

We are proud to be participating in this event and hope for a great turnout! See you Saturday!