The inside of the Rocket Fizz location in Nashville. The soda pop and candy shop is set to open in the Short North this December.
Credit: Courtesy of Lyndsay Maher
If Coca-Cola and Pepsi are too vanilla for your taste, perhaps the syrupy carbonation of “Martian poop soda” will strike your fancy.
Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop is set to open its doors in the Short North this December, offering a large selection of treats in some unusual flavors, such as the aforementioned soda imagined from extraterrestrial feces.
Lyndsay Maher, owner of the soon-to-open Short North location, said the store will house more than 500 different flavors of bottled soda and over 2,000 types of imported and domestic candies.
Rocket Fizz is a California-based retail store franchisor that sells its own line of different flavored sodas along with a large selection of candies.
“I have had a sweet tooth for as long as I can remember,” Maher said in an email. “And I attribute that mainly to my grandparents. They would always have bowls of candy lying around their house. As I got older, my grandparents would take me to a fun little general store as a treat to pick out a few pieces of candy and maybe a small toy. Those memories created this vision to one day open an old-school soda pop and candy shop.”
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The Short North is the first Rocket Fizz location in Ohio. There are more than 60 locations in 18 states, Maher said.
Some of the strangest products offered by Rocket Fizz are the flavored sodas, Maher said. The store will offer flavors like peanut butter and jelly, ranch dressing, buffalo wing sauce and bacon. Maher’s personal favorite is the Marion blackberry-flavored “Martian Poop,” which she said is “actually very good.”
Popular products are the giant gummy bears and Japanese imported candies, Maher said. In addition to sweets, the store will also have “retro and gag gifts, tin signs, as well as movie and concert posters,” Maher said.
She described the items as being “low dollar” and “something for anyone’s price point.”
Maher, who previously worked in the medical device sales industry, said the idea to open the store happened when she was living in Colorado and visited Boulder, where she stumbled upon a Rocket Fizz franchise. A couple years later, she moved to Columbus with her family and decided to pursue opening the candy store because she wanted to “explore other paths outside of corporate America.”
Some students think it’s an interesting idea and one worth checking out.
Leila Khamees, a second-year in economics, said she couldn’t picture going by herself, but would consider going if she were babysitting and wanted something fun to do.
“I don’t eat that much candy, but I think it’s fun for the Short North, just because they don’t have anything like that down there,” she said. “It seems different.”
Lauren Eckhoff, a third-year in marketing, said she was surprised by the opening of a candy store.
“I’m kind of surprised that it would be opening with soda and pop just because I feel like that industry is kind of on the decline nowadays,” she said. “I feel like people are trying to get healthier options. Other than that, it’s interesting that they are bringing in candy from all over the world.”
Eckhoff also said it could be an interesting place to buy gifts.
“It depends on how unique the things are, but it could be cool,” she said.
Including Le Chocoholique, Rocket Fizz is set join a very small list of candy shops in the Short North when it opens the week of Dec. 14. It will be located at 944 N. High St.
Correction: A prior version of this article stated that Lyndsay Maher previously worked in sales for hospital amenity companies. In fact, she previously worked in the medical device sales industry.
Correction: A prior version of this article stated that Lyndsay Maher moved to the Short North. In fact, Maher moved to a suburb of Columbus.
