Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop - Spring Lake Park, MN — Restaurant in Spring Lake Park

I went to Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop (formerly Blue Sun Soda Shop) in Spring Lake Park early in April this year (2024), and while I had gone to Blue Sun Soda Shop at least 3 times previously when I have visited from St. Louis, this was my first time at Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop. Overall, this was a mixed experience (which I wasn't expecting).

On the positive, the atmosphere was wonderful, the staff was very friendly, and (despite one of the songs I can't stand being played during my time there) the store was bright and cheerful with good music playing (especially the 70s and 80s music).

However, there were 2 major drawbacks to this visit.

1. Blue Sun Soda Shop (before becoming Grandpa Joe's) was known for its massive soda selection (which is why I visit it when I'm in Minnesota), but the soda selection when I visited this time felt very lacking. I would normally have to limit myself on how many (and carefully choose which) sodas I would get when visiting Blue Sun Soda Shop, but I struggled to choose enough sodas that I either wanted to try or liked to fill a 24-slot box.

2. Blue Sun Soda Shop had such a massive soda selection that they organized the sodas by flavor (which makes a lot of sense, makes it very simple to look for flavors you prefer, and is very intuitive), but Grandpa Joe's organized the sodas they had by brand. That makes it much harder to locate sodas if you prefer certain flavors (like root beer, cream soda, grape, etc.). I had to go through the soda selections 4-6 times in order to choose 24 sodas for myself because I missed certain sodas on earlier passes because of the way they were organized.

Also, it felt like the sodas were more expensive at Grandpa Joe's than they were at Blue Sun Soda Shop.

I'm willing to give Grandpa Joe's one more try the next time I visit Minnesota, but, at this point right now, Minnesota's Largest Candy Store has more, and better organized,...

Blue Sun Soda Shop in Spring Lake Park Minnesota is a fun place to visit with its fireworks, retro candies, retro toys, retro practical joke items and retro style craft sodas they make and bottle in returnable glass bottles. They were having a sale on their Whistler's soda the day we were there. My friends and I bought a case of 8 oz bottles to try various flavors ( yes, we could mix and match). The only real criticism we have about the soda is they could cut back a bit on the sugar (yup, they use real sugar).

The day my roommates and I were at the shop, they had a couple of food trucks parked in the back parking lot that sold nothing but scrumptious gluten free state fair type of treats - gf mini donuts of various flavors in the Gray Duck food truck, and gf/egg-free corn dogs and fried cheese curds in the other food truck (sorry, don't remember the name of it). If the Gray Duck truck hadn't been there, they would've been making and selling their gf funnel cakes of various flavors as well.

Believe me, you would not know these two food trucks were selling gluten free treats unless someone told you so. That's how good they were!! Even though it was a rainy day, there were long lines that moved pretty quickly at both food trucks. People were buying armloads of their deliciousness.

Whether or not there are food trucks parked in the back parking lot, Blue Sun Soda Shop is a fun destination to go to and spend a little time with your family and friends, enjoying some of their signs in the store, looking at (and buying) their craft sodas, candies, toys and whatever else they have to offer. Be there...

Blue sun is a really neat novelty shop to visit. It's a great outing for the family, a date, or just by yourself. There's a couple of cool free pinball machines in the back. There's also a neat little machine that you can put your sodas into and it chills them within a couple of minutes.

The soda varieties are so extensive that you can spend an hour in there and still be intrigued at every step. There are many foreign as well as domestic varieties of soft drinks.

I love the recommendation board. The staff highlights some of their favorites and they explain the flavors. The staff is very knowledgeable and take sodas seriously.

The only reason I am giving Blue Sun 3 stars is the price point. I just can't afford to shop there. The sodas are over $2.50 a bottle. That's more than fancy micro brew beers! Albeit, I love soda and I don't drink alcohol, I just don't have that kind of cash on hand to pay a visit to Blue Sun once a week. If the price point was dropped to meet local competition of hard to find sodas, I would make this my goto destination (local price point is $1.79 - 2.00). To think of paying over $15.00 for a six pack of soda considering most hardware stores and even cub sell high end soda six packs for around $7-12, it's just too much.

I would love for Blue Sun to prosper. Who knows? Maybe they will. If they lowered their price, they could be a place where I could go to on a regular basis instead of a fancy occasion. By doing so, I think they'd double their business overnight. I mean, I definitely want to try everything in there. Think $1.99/soda or $1.75/soda for a six...