Do Americans have pick and mix?

Yes, Americans have pick and mix, but they do not usually call it that. In the United States, sweets are candy, and sweets sold loose from bins are bulk candy or loose candy. A wall of self serve bins is a candy wall.

Penny candy

America had penny candy: cheap sweets sold loose by the piece. The first penny candy sold in the United States was the Tootsie Roll, in 1907. It was followed in later decades by Necco Wafers and by Hershey's Kisses, made by Milton Hershey's company: see Milton Hershey

The five and dime

For much of the 20th century, Americans bought loose sweets mainly at F.W. Woolworth's five and dime stores, a chain of cheap variety shops. The same company founded Britain's Woolworths in 1909, which later became a separate British business. When the American chain closed in the 1990s, the fashion for loose sweets faded.

The Swedish revival

Loose sweets have been making a comeback in America through Scandinavia. Self serve candy walls were developed in the early 1980s by three Finnish students who had studied in Stockholm, and the idea has spread around the world. Some IKEA stores in North America now sell loose sweets, mostly Swedish varieties alongside American sweets.

In 2024, videos of BonBon, a Swedish sweet shop in Brooklyn, went viral on TikTok, and demand for Swedish style pick and mix soared: see why is Swedish candy so popular?

By weight or by the piece

Bulk sweets can be sold by weight or by the piece, and both happen around the world. Penny candy was sold by the piece; modern candy walls, like British pick and mix and Swedish lösgodis, are often sold by weight: see why is pick and mix sold by weight?

A question of words

If you are British and visiting America, ask for candy, not sweets, and look for candy floss under its American name, cotton candy: see what is the difference between sweets and candy?

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