TONAWANDA, N.Y. — A local business owner's social media post got so much attention, it shut her down.
It's all good now, but she learned quickly viral success can be like sugar; it's great to a point.
"Somebody placed an order and asked for me to pack it on camera," said Jessica Stevenson, owner of Hello, Sweets! in Tonawanda. "I just kind of went through and kept it on camera, I didn't know anybody would find it interesting."
But you just never know what the people on the Internet will find interesting or what they will do about it. When they saw Jessica Stevenson packing up that candy in her shop in Tonawanda, well they wanted in... in a big way. The store's TikTok following shot up and the orders started rolling in.
"It was a month's worth of business in two days. So it was insane. But good. It was good," said Stevenson.
But there's just one other thing...
"They cleared out the entire store, we had to shut down for a couple of days," said Stevenson. "When we started the business, we didn't even have a website. So COVID kind of made us create that website. And then a year later, the website completely wipes out our stock."
Jessica left a corporate desk job for the sweet life in 2019. She calls Hello, Sweets! Candy and Pop Shop her little shoebox; packed with sugary treasures to satisfy any sweet tooth.
"I got into kind of a candy store business just because I wanted to make people happy," said Stevenson. "Candy always made me happy. I have fond memories of going to candy stores."
Now, Jessica is once again looking forward to something else that makes her happy; connecting with her customers in her store.
"It's an experience we'll always remember," she said. "I'm just hoping that out of all of this, we get some more local customers. Our local customers are really our bread and butter. I like the shipping, but I like talking to people who come in the store and having people physically here. So I'm super excited to reopen the store and make sure this time to separate my online stock from my in store stock, so we will not have to close down the store again if we get a lot of online orders. We'll be able to stay open this time."
You never know where one social media post might lead.
Jessica is in the process of restocking the shop. They'll be back open Friday, March 4 from 1 p.m.-7 p.m. and from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday for anyone who wants to stop in and say Hello, Sweets!
Hello, Sweets! is located at 50 Main Street Suite A in Tonawanda.