New Square Candy Store Opening

By the end of this week, students will be able to indulge in Hidden Sweets on Church Street to counter the sour taste of January slush and exams in the yard.

The new candy store around the corner from the Body Shop is expected to open tomorrow or Friday. It will feature more than 250 bins filled with jelly beans, wax bottles, licorice, Sour Patch kids and various other delights.

The store stocks more than 40 different kinds of jelly beans, including buttered popcorn and toasted marshmallow flavors.

The store's owners, Paula and Michael Braverman, who also own another Hidden Sweets on Cambridge Street in Boston, hope to match Harvard Square's diversity with a non-pareil range of sweets. The store will offer a range of Nutrasweet candies as well as more traditional, guilt-laden sweets.

In addition to candy, the store will also feature two varieties of homemade chocolate, an assortment of gift boxes, and "alternative" greeting cards. The store tentatively plans to be open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with shorter hours Sunday through Wednesday.

The Bravermans said they chose the location for the lively atmosphere and the great market potential of Harvard Square.

While the Square area has for many years lacked a full-fledged candy retailer, a candy store in the Shops by Harvard Yard in Holyoke Center, Sweet Stuff, has been doing successful business since its opening in October.

A Sweet Stuff spokesperson claimed that its prices will undercut the new store's and that its established client base will remain loyal. The Holyoke Center store sells the original Bailey's Fudge Truffle as well as 300 different types of candy. The spokesperson also pointed to an elegant color coordinated display as one of the store's distinctive features.

The Bravermans, however, do not foresee any serious problem in competition with Sweet Stuff. Paula Braverman is confident that Hidden Sweets' large floor space and unusually eclectic confections, combined with its prime location next to the Loews movie theater, will bode success.

Moviegoers disgruntled by long lines will be placated by a customized jelly bean mix or a chocolate rose. As the co-owner says, "I've yet to meet a bitter person leaving a candy store."