What is your favorite holiday snack? Is it warm, crumbly sugar cookies, or spicy gingerbread? Perhaps it is chocolate and peppermint bark. As we sleigh into the holiday season, a wonderful place to shop for all this cheery goodness is Sweet Pierre’s. This business recently celebrated its second anniversary since Hillary Springel became the new owner in 2022. Owning and working in a candy store is the ultimate dream for little kids, but what does that really look like? Mrs. Springel has graciously indulged us in our curiosity and has spoken about her experience and life as the owner of Sweet Pierre’s.

Have you had any prior experience with running small businesses, or was this a new experience for you? 

“I’ve had very little experience. I barely worked in retail when I was a teenager. This was my first time using a credit card machine, a cash register, figuring out how to wholesale order, and getting licenses from the state, it was a steep learning curve.”

What inspired you to become the owner of a small business? Was this always a dream of yours or was it more spur-of-the-moment?

“When my son was in the public school here, I used to run book fairs for many years. I was interested in books and was looking at commercial property in town to open a children’s and young adult bookstore. I never had any experience in retail or owning a business; I was a lawyer by trade. It was 2020, and we had no idea how anything would work out. It seemed unwise to start a brand new business, especially in book sales.”

Why did you want to become the new owner of Sweet Pierre’s?

“In early summer of 2021, Nancy Saxe, the previous owner of Sweet Pierre’s, posted on Facebook that she was looking to sell. I sent a screenshot to my husband because I thought it would be very turn-key. It was an established business, so we could step in and learn the ropes. She already had established loyal, returning customers which made it a lot easier than starting from scratch.”

Since you became the owner two years ago, what changes have you made to the Sweet Pierre’s brand? How have you helped revitalize it? 

“I was very lucky because Nancy ran the business for seventeen years, so she was very established. She had curated products from all around the world and had a very loyal customer base that remained when I stepped in. Since volunteering extensively at schools and the fact that two of my employees are paraprofessionals in schools, we all know many young families in town. We’re 50+ years old, but we actually know the younger families, so we’ve been able to introduce new, younger customers to the store.”

What are some short-term goals you have for the business?

“Right now we are heading into our 4th quarter, the biggest quarter of the fiscal year because of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the holiday season. We have a lot of corporate clients that we do gift baskets for, so I’m always looking to expand and reach out to new clients and customers who want to do the gift baskets.” 

How many employees/coworkers do you have working alongside you? Has it been easy or difficult to get the workforce that you need? Also, what is your hiring process? What age demographic do you typically employ?

“We’re very small and because we are very seasonal in terms of when we get busy, we have a core group of three women plus me that fill in during the six days a week that we open. During the busier holiday stretch, we sometimes bring in high school students or college students to bag almost 400 pounds of bulk chocolate, tie ribbons, put stickers on boxes, and do the heavier manual labor.” 

What does it look like to be the owner of Sweet Pierre’s? What are some of your responsibilities?

“I work in the store five days a week. I’m here opening at 10:30 am and closing at 5:30 pm. On afternoons that I do have help, I will tuck myself into the back of the store, put in orders, return emails, or print out labels. When I’m alone in the store I work in the front and put in orders in the back. I love customer interaction; it’s very important to me, especially since the  COVID pandemic when nobody had seen anyone for so long.”

What is your customer demographic like?

“We run the full age range. We have a lot of young parents with young children, and I’m doing party favors for a 92nd birthday right now. A huge part of my customer base comes from Nancy, so we have the older established families in Wilton along with the younger families.”  

Do you get your sweets from outside sources or do you make everything in-house? 

“We don’t make anything, but we focus on getting local chocolate, so we pick up chocolate from Bridgewater located in Danbury, and we pick up our truffles and bark from other pretty local establishments. During the holidays, we get a ton of imports from Europe.” 

What is your favorite memory so far of owning Sweet Pierre’s?
“The second Christmas that I worked here was definitely a favorite time of mine. The first Christmas I had just taken over the business, and it was so stressful. I was a mess, but the second Christmas I knew more of what to do. Closing that door on Christmas Eve knowing that I had been successful that season was a very happy memory of mine.”

What are some of your favorite items you sell, and what would you recommend to your customers to buy?
“I am a sweet and salty girl, so if I were to pick chocolate, I would pick the chocolate-covered potato chips. We also have these salted caramels from Utah that are hands down my favorite thing we sell out of the chocolate/candy case. I’m also a sour gummy girl, and I love cotton candy.”