When customers enter the former Blue Sun Soda Shop in Spring Lake Park, they'll still see the metal shelves lined with unusual flavors of bottled soda on the left. A turn to the right, though, reveals the new focus of the business: wall-to-wall displays of colorful candy.
Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, a Pennsylvania-based sweet treat shop with locations in several East Coast states, bought two Blue Sun Soda Shops in the Twin Cities, marking the beginning of the company's rapid Midwest expansion. Neither party disclosed the sale price.
After the Spring Lake Park outpost opened in the spring, a Stillwater spot followed earlier this summer. A Bloomington store will open in the coming weeks. But going from zero to three within months wasn't a cookie-cutter exercise.
"Each location is unique and different," said Christopher J. Beers, who founded Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop 12 years ago.
Grandpa Joe's does have a similar concept to the famous Minnesota's Largest Candy Store, though. The huge yellow barn off Hwy. 169 in Jordan also boasts rows and rows of confections, including many vintage favorites and hard-to-find sodas. But the state's highway interchange project will force it to move to a new location nearby. It will close on Dec. 1, 2026, and reopen the following May.
Minnesota's Largest Candy Store owner Robert Wagner has said the new store will expand to 2 acres and cost $20 million to build. But Beers said that didn't factor into his decision to bring Grandpa Joe's to the state.
"I think we offer two unique experiences," Beers said. "If you've always made the annual or monthly journey down to Jordan to check out the candy store, you should continue to keep those traditions alive. That's the best part about the candy business: We help our customers relive their childhood."
What brought Grandpa Joe's out west was an offer from then-Blue Sun Soda Shop owner Mark Lazarchic. Lazarchic sold soda at Grandpa Joe's and asked Beers if he wanted to buy the business and "take it to the next level."
Lazarchic said Beers has done just that without losing the charm of the original. Beers also worked to retain as much of the staff from Blue Sun Soda Shop as possible, keeping a dozen original employees. He also knew it was important to Lazarchic to carry on the soda and bottling sides of the company.
"In the beginning of the sale, I had some concern that Christopher's team wouldn't embrace the soda aspect of the shop," but Beers welcomed it, Lazarchic said. "In fact, he's actually expanded on the amount of soda sold."
Lazarchic's son Vincent Lazarchic stayed on with Grandpa Joe's after the sale and will manage the Bloomington location.
"I really like working here," Vincent Lazarchic said. "The employees are friendly, and it's just a happy place. We have a ton of different candy that sometimes you haven't seen for a long time or maybe you've never seen them."
Beers said several communities have already contacted him seeking Grandpa Joe's locations. Though he did not disclose any specific expansion plans, he said the company is "definitely considering continued growth in the Minnesota market."
