Kids, Lighter, News

Owner Of Mollie’s Candy Stores Is Just Six Years Old

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candy; Image by Evan Amos, Wikimedia CommonsMollie’s is a chain of candy stores in England.

They sell British and American candy, as well as ice cream.

There are three stores in the chain, located in the British towns of Welshpool, Newtown and Shrewsbury.

But perhaps the most interesting thing about Mollie’s candy stores is the owner—Mollie Price. You see, she’s six years old.

Price started the business because she liked those “pick and mix” stores, as her mother told Britain’s Mail Online news website. By “pick and mix” she means bulk food stores, where items are in bins and you can scoop as much as you need, put them in a bag and buy them by the pound.

That’s how most of the candy in Mollie’s stores is sold.

Her mother said Price noticed there was an opportunity for a bulk candy store, and Mollie’s was born.

Price chooses the candy for her stores herself. And she works in the stores on Saturdays. On Sunday mornings she gets up early to visit a candy wholesaler she buys her bulk candy from. She and her friends test much of the candy before deciding which candy to offer in her stores.

Price and her friends also come up with innovative ideas to market the store’s products. For instance, they recently installed temperature gauges that show how hot it is outside. When it gets cooler, customers can buy Mollie’s ice cream a bit cheaper; when it’s hot outside, the ice cream costs more. It’s an innovative idea that’s not only fun and original, but it makes sense.

It was Price’s idea to open the stores in the first place. Her mother said Price saw the need for the kind of store she wanted to open. And she was right, because the youngster recently opened her third store and has plans to expand her chain even further.

The UK has recognized Mollie as one of the youngest entrepreneurs in Britain.

This article was originally published on TKN on July 13, 2012.

By Kathleen Tilly

Writing/Discussion Prompt
Mollie noticed that there was a need for a bulk candy store in her community so she and her mom created one. As the article explains, it has been a huge success.

Have you noticed a need/desire in your community for a certain type of store, a product or a service? What are some creative ways that you could meet this demand? What would you need in order to realize your idea?

Reading Prompt: Responding To and Evaluating Texts
Mollie and her friends have come up with some creative ideas to bring business into the store. One example in the article is that Mollie uses the temperature outside to determine the price of ice cream. Can you think of any other creative ways for Mollie to get more people to buy candy in her store?

Express personal thoughts and feelings about what has been read (OME, Reading: 1.8).



Grammar Feature: Indirect Quotation
Quotation marks (“) are used when you write exactly what someone said or wrote. Indirect quotations don’t need quotation marks because they only explain what someone said. Can you find places in the article that are indirect quotations?