Over the holiday break, I visited Miami—a city of sun, style, and unapologetic excess. Among the high-end boutiques and sparkling holiday displays, something stopped me in my tracks: massive retail candy stores like IT’SUGAR and Captain Candy Shop, glowing with the kind of neon intensity that suggests they’re peddling more than mere confections.
These aren’t just quaint shops selling a few nostalgic treats. They’re candy cathedrals. Towering shelves groan under the weight of five-pound gummy bears, licorice ropes long enough to rappel with, blow pops the size of small bowling balls, and novelty chocolates so oversized they could double as gym equipment. It’s candy on steroids—designed, quite literally, to stop you in your tracks.
This isn’t a phenomenon exclusive to Miami. IT’SUGAR, founded in 2006, now operates over 100 locations globally, while Captain Candy Shop, with its whimsical pirate branding, has hoisted its sugary sails in cities across Europe and beyond. These stores aren’t just retail outlets; they’re global juggernauts of nostalgia and indulgence, each location crafted to mesmerize and overwhelm.
Yet, seeing them in Miami—a city often lauded as a hub of health-conscious living—was an ironic twist worthy of a raised eyebrow. Miami’s streets are dotted with juice bars, yoga studios, and high-end gyms, yet these sugar shrines thrive in its most exclusive areas. It’s hard not to see these stores as part of a larger cultural contradiction: a society preaching wellness while drowning in sugar.
Diabetes Epidemic
And therein lies the bitter aftertaste. We’re living in what many health officials are calling a “diabetes epidemic.” Rates of Type 2 diabetes are soaring, with approximately 10% of the North American population impacted. Furthermore 1 in 3 North Americans are pre-diabetic, and obesity is at an all-time high. While a large consumption of sugar is not the cause of diabetes, it certainly is understood to be a major contributing factor.
We’re even warned to reduce sugar intake while taking the new “miracle obesity drugs” like Ozempic and Wegovy. Public health officials are sounding alarms, and yet here we are, building candy meccas that make Willy Wonka’s factory look restrained. What’s next—candy subscription boxes marketed as meal replacements? Oh wait, we’re probably already there.
These stores know exactly what they’re doing. They aren’t selling candy; they’re selling escapism. The oversized gummy sculptures, the walls of vibrant jellybeans, the nostalgia-soaked branding—all of it is designed to distract you from the consequences of overindulgence. It’s not a treat; it’s a spectacle, carefully engineered to make you forget that a single serving of their candy could send your blood sugar skyrocketing.
It’s not just the sugar-laden products that are outsized; it’s the messaging. IT’SUGAR’s cheeky tagline, “We Bring the Fun,” feels like a sly wink at the expense of public health. Captain Candy Shop, with its pirate motif, encourages customers to loot the treasure chest of treats as if the plunder won’t come with a hefty price—paid later in doctor visits and insulin pens.
The holidays might soften our resistance to indulgence, but this is about more than seasonal cheer. These stores are a reflection of a broader cultural tension: the tug-of-war between a desire for unbridled pleasure and the growing awareness of its consequences. They invite us to gorge ourselves on sugar at a time when we know, more than ever, that the cost is alarmingly high.
Making Good Choices
In full disclosure. I didn’t walk out empty-handed. I bought one extra-long, cream-filled, sugar-coated licorice stick. Our group of 3 each took one indulgent bite, then agreed to throw the rest in the trash – a symbolic gesture reinforcing our commitment to “making good choices” when faced with the wrong type of temptation.
We all felt good about our decision, but I couldn’t shake the image of a family carting home a 10-pound chocolate bar or an oversized bag of gummy worms. They weren’t just buying treats; they were buying into a fantasy—a fantasy that somehow, sugar still equals joy, even when we know it so often leads elsewhere.
Miami, it seems, has room for both green juice cleanses and candy monstrosities. But as we grapple with the health crises of our time, these stores feel less like celebrations of indulgence and more like sugar-coated shrines to denial.
In a world where marketers profit from our weakest impulses and drug manufacturers profit from their ability to pick up the pieces after the fact, the real challenge for the consumer lies in reclaiming our choices. Candy emporiums like these are just examples of how indulgence is cleverly packaged and sold as joy.
But joy doesn’t come in a five-pound gummy bear, nor does it require a prescription for what follows. Real joy is found in balance—in savouring a treat without surrendering to it, in making choices that nourish rather than deplete. As we continue to navigate a society eager to exploit our cravings, perhaps the sweetest victory is learning to resist the spectacle and choose health instead.
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