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West Street - “Sweet Times of Rochford”
Talking with Sue Mowatt of ‘Sweet Times of Rochford’  (13th December 2010)


Rochford Life: Sue, what are your opening times
Sue:  We are open Monday to Saturday 9 until 6. And, yes, we open all day on a Wednesday. We decided that since we re-opened people need to know that we are here for them, every day.  We also offer a delivery service to local people. We’ve only recently reopened because we had closed down because of the recession. We’ve been back about eight weeks and we’ve had loads of people say, ‘We’re so pleased you’re back, we missed you,’ and they were really genuine so that’s been really nice. We’ve had so many of our regulars come back and say, ‘We really missed you’, so that’s worth a lot so hopefully we’ll have a good future here.    

RL: Is it that people don’t notice shops in Rochford?  
Sue: Yes, I think that is part of the problem. Rochford is only tiny but people don’t tend to walk round it, and even when we were here previously, for a good year and a half, people were saying, ‘Oh, I never walk down this street, I never knew you were here’, and I’ve thought, there are all these lovely little businesses that need your support.     

RL: You appeal to which grouping?  
Sue:   Mostly to the older generation; it’s that nostalgia. It’s mostly older people. The children have mostly never seen sweets in Jars. We do a few things for children but we prefer to keep the traditional sweets that tend to be mostly for adults.     

RL: So most of your sweets are of the old fashioned kinds?
Sue:  Yes, that’s right, we stock a lot of the traditional favourites but we also stock the proper brands. Where you can still get the brands, whereas many shops will have their own jars with their own labels so you don’t actually know what you are buying, we like to use the traditional as-they-come labelled jars. For example Jesmona have been making black bullets for donkey’s years. I think it adds to the fun of it. People see the old brands like Sharpes and obviously Cadbury’s, and Edinburgh rock, the real olde-worlde sweets, and keep coming in for the old favourites.         

RL:   Well who needs a Tardis to travel back in time? Shelves and shelves of taste-bud memories. I’ve even seen flying saucers here! How wonderful! Well, may the people of Rochford realise the goodies that are just sitting here waiting for them, day after day, as they walk by. Thank you, Sue, for your time – I will be back!
Sweet Times of Rochford
47 West Street,
Rochford, Essex, SS4 1BE

Open Mondays to Saturdays 9 -6