See's Candies

It's owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffer keeps it quaint.

They are disgusting. The office manager in my last job used to present them for holidays. Nasty sugar bombs with no discernible flavor. Deplorable.

Where did this California institution open in NYC?

60 West 8th Street just a bit off of 6th ave R3

Macy's and some other retailers sometimes carried bits and pieces over the years, but this is a full store.

It's good, but it's not as good as local candy maker Asher's.

Didn't a member of that family, an openly gay lecturer at some New England college, get murdered a couple of years ago?

I've never had the candies, so reading about that in the papers is my only association with the See's name.

In solidarity with R5, See's is sorta complicated.

It's good candy. Not exceptional. It's a high-quality version of early 20th-century drugstore candy (Whitman's, Russell Stover, et al). In the west where See's is from, there wasn't a lot of competition for a long time, because the west wasn't very populated, save California. See's capitalized on being the only candy company around by expanding throughout the west, where they are respected and appreciated.

On the other hand, the east has a longer history, lots of people, and many more candy makers that equal See's in quality. In recent years, See's has been looking at expanding and becoming a national brand. See's will encounter considerable competition in the east that it does not have in the west.

Moreover, See's has been increasing prices by 5% to 10% every year for years now, and in the past couple years, I and other people I know have begun to balk at paying the prices See's is now asking, which is over $20/lb in their retail stores. Their cheap cardboard Easter basket (they used to be wicker) is $36 for 1 lb of candy. I can get high-end chocolates for that price. So this Easter, I'm considering other companies than See's, since See's no longer has the price-quality advantage.

No doubt this national expansion is expensive and will cause the price of See's to rise even more. Warren Buffet bought this company because he could count on a company with a solid reputation and local recognition. If it becomes another overpriced national brand, that goodwill might be lost, and may not be recoverable.

They have an apricot ball rolled in coconut that is incredible. The other candies are good, but not better than your local or regional candy maker as others have said. But that one candy is all I order via mail, because it is unique.

Their key lime truffles are divine, their chocolate....not so much.

I started ordering from them after reading about them here, and am hooked. The fact that you can custom pick your candies is great fun! The apricot ball is a goodie, as R8 said. There are others, like the cashew brittle covered in white chocolate(not "confection" as many candy companies try to fool you with) that are yummy. And the key lime truffle covered in white chocolate. Albanese has some triple milk chocolate dipped malt balls that are good, too. I'll have to look into Asher's.

Which is the best chocolate brand?

[quote]Their key lime truffles are divine, their chocolate....not so much.

Yaazzz!

When I go to Sees, the few times I do, I get one or two pieces of the key lime, and then I load up with their weak ass Turtles that need more caramel. Plus, I make sure I have a few Bordeaux and Mochas in the mix.

In total, I have about 5 to 7 pieces of candy.

I can get Sees candy for 1/3 of the price, but I really have no desire. Since, it's not that addicting.

How do you get Sees for 1/3 the price??

Love the ScotchMallow.

R13) I got an educator's discount and then I go to their Orange county outlet, which is already at a deep discount. As I said, I rarely go to See's, so check to see if they still honor the educator's discount, if you're anywhere around the Orangethorpe store.

They used to have dark chocolate raspberry creams that were very flavorful. But I think they may have been discontinued. I

n San Diego their stores would be mobbed at the holidays, then get a rush at Valentine's and Mother's Days. Apart from that, mostly empty.

For that type of candy, I think they are the best.

Never thought much of See's candy. I was spoiled growing up in the Dayton, Ohio, area with Esther Price. Maybe it just depends on what you were raised with that determines what you prefer?

I love See's.

omg i love see's too... the scatchmallow... to die for! Mary!

r5 I totally disagree. See's is much better than Asher's.

Love Sees! I get all my holiday candy there.

God i ate a lot of that stuff when i was a kid. These days they have mobile kiosks that pops up during holidays, but i don't think they have a standalone store in my area.

How does it compare to something like Godiva?

R24, See's is MUCH better than Godiva.

I've never heard of apricot balls. I see some recipes on line & they look easy to make. Does the See's version have nuts?

They're not terrible, not great either. I agree with the earlier comment that they're better than stuff like Whitman or Russell Stover.

What it did have going for it was an under-served niche in CA and some of the stuff like the suckers were unique.

I'd eat them if given a box, but probably wouldn't buy a box on my own. If I were still living in CA and needed an institutional gift (such as token gifts for all the admin for admin day), it would be fine.

R24 R25 I've never had See's, but someone gave me a box of Godiva for Xmas, and I really only liked one, which had either some raspberry or strawberry component. I thought Godiva was supposed to be top of the line chocolate, and it wasn't.

Yuck I hate See's chocolates.

I've made cocada from the recipe at the link, & stirred chopped dried apricots into it -- VERY good -- seems a lot like the See's apricot balls (no chocolate involved).

See's nuts and chews was always a staple in my house as a kid. I went through a period where I didn't have any so I was a bit apprehensive to try them again and see if my childhood memories were wrong. They weren't. Still delicious.

Russel Stover used to be good years and years ago but that shit is as bad as Whitmans theses days.

I used to go in there all the time when I moved to CA years ago, loved the ladies in white, they always gave you a free piece of candy when you bought something

Not a huge fan but I used to go in from time to time when I worked down the street because of the free samples they would give you while shopping.

Safeway used to sell their assortments in DC. They're not premium quality, but they really are much better than most of the drek people buy.

I bought a box of dark chocolate cream centers for Christmas. Heads above the other name brands I have tried. The candy was very fresh and I liked all of the different flavors. The peppermint patties were so good. I really enjoyed everything I bought. Fantastic company. Will buy more for Easter. BTW, I have bought artisanal chocolates that tasted like shit. And were stale.

The dark chocolate pineapple truffle is fantastic!

Native San Franciscan here. I grew up with See's, but it was for special occasions only.

Many many years ago I had a paper route and, in those days, every month we used to go back in the evening to collect (I often used it as an excuse to get out of the house in the evenings and meet up with other neighbor guys and smoke, but that's beside the point). Anyway, one of my customers was an elderly woman whose grandchildren would give her See's candy on holidays, birthdays. etc. The poor old gal had bad teeth and couldn't eat the nuts and chews so she would save them for me. (Her eyes weren't so good either so there would be a little nibble taken out of the corner to see if it had a soft inside or not, which even then seemed oddly endearing to me).

The first time I brought the box home my mother was horrified ('She might be trying to poision you!') and tossed the box in the trash. So, being an ornery 12 year old, the next time she gave me a box I hid it in my room, all to myself.

That sweet old lady kept me in See's candy for 6 years until I went off to college. I live in NY now and used to have to beg friends to bring a box when they'd come from CA, but like the OP said, we have our own See's now.

Between See's on 8th and Peet's Coffee on Union Square, there is no need to go back to California any more!

That is so sweet, R38.

There's a Peets on Union Square???

I love them, especially the truffles and brown sugar fudge squares. See's is superior.

They have fun Easter egg flavors too, including their signature Bordeaux.

You can almost always get See's gift cards at a discount at Costco, and they often send out coupons good for $5 off of a $30 purchase, so between the two, you can bring the price down quite a bit.

Not a big fan of See's. I used to like Godiva, but they've changed. Over the past 10 years or so, my sweet tooth has shrunk so i don't eat candy very often.

This thread screams "MARY!!"

[quote] There's a Peet's on Union Square???

It's inside the Capital One Bank, 14th Street and Broadway

On Reddit someone said that when he was a little kid his older brother told him that Mary See was dead and ran the company from beyond the grave and that all the old ladies working there were ghosts.

Hi r38, another SF native here. Great story. I have worked down the road from the See's factory in SSF for decades, and have never visited it or any See's store. Didn't know they gave samples, as I just learned here. See's seems so 1960's and 1970's to me. Like the Brut Cologne of candyland. Will check it out tomorrow!

[quote]Like the Brut Cologne of candyland.

Ugh.

R47 hard to believe you have never been tempted to go into See's. They're in practically every mall in California.

Yes, just by walking in, you'll get a free piece, no need to ask, they'll offer it immediately.

One of my most miserable jobs was managing a store at the Stanford Shopping Center back in the 90s. My district manager was a real shrew and one day I get reamed in front of the staff for something or other I did or didn't do. After she left, I was over in a corner, mindlessly rearranging some merchandise, trying to decide if the job was worth the aggravation, when one of the employees walked up to me with a small bag of See's peanut brittle. (The staff knew it was my favorite as I often would come back from lunch with a bag of it and offer it around).

Those perpetually broke college kids had each chipped in a dollar or two and got me the candy in order to cheer me up.

Wasn't that nice?

What is a "See's"? I've never understood the name.

It's named for the founder Mary See

r47 "Like the Brut Cologne of candyland."

No, that honor belongs to Russell Stover

Canadian Mary See

Charles Alexander See

Founder of See's Famous Candies (Los Angeles). The candy boxes bear his mother's picture.

Wasn't there already an extensive thread on this?

And:

[quote]I used to go in there all the time when I moved to CA years ago, loved the ladies in white, they always gave you a free piece of candy when you bought something

You don't; have to buy anything. They have rigorous customer service training. In order to work there you are seriously made to go through a 3-day training session on the ins and outs of customer service. The employees are told that they have to give a customer a sample of anything they want, as many as they want. If that means opening up an entire special box of something, or they want a sucker, or a piece of a candy bar, you have to do it. The only catch is that the customer has to eat the item in the store.

Oh, here's the other See's thread, which was actually the Godiva thread, but as was already determined, See's is better than Godiva.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Does it make you poop?

Wasn't Godiva bought out by Hershey's or Mars? That would explain their drop in quality.

The dark chocolate covered almonds and the key lime truffles at See's are both excellent.

Sees is not better than Godiva. Godiva is way better and delicious.

shitty sugar fucks

I interviewed at Godiva for a job as Creative Director of Packaging, the people who run the company are creepy but I did get a 1 lb box of chocolates at the end of the interview. I'm glad I didn't get the job some middle eastern conglomerate bought the company and moved the HQ out of NYC.

R61 likes the taste of wax.

We always knew ahead of time who was getting See's candy at Christmas, because they always had that same flat box, the same red wrapping from the store, and the same gold sticker with the profile of Mary See. It was obvious what it was.

Their Bordeaux and Scotchmallow candy bars are incredible.

Been a customer for 60 years, eaten the stuff even longer. I've tried many other confectioners and See's always is the best for my tastes. Easter Eggs, for me it's See's Mayfair (filled with whole glazed cherries and pecans, now only available in dark chocolate) You can get the Mayfair chocolate in milk 0r dark chocolate.

I like Sees, but I have to wonder why do they go cheap on the caramel on their turtles. It doesn't make sense to me. You pay all of that money, and they only seem to go cheap on that candy.

Adore the chocolates and purchase them three or four at a time a couple times a month, and continue to take 2-pound boxes to family holiday dinners because that's part of what a holiday gathering was about for our postwar mid-century gang. Hate the other items they feature in sacs or boxes like those caramel turtles, the fudge, or the bags or chocolate-covered raisins. Vile, cheap, often stale.

The turtles are never sold like that R69). You have to buy them from the counter as if they are some fine delicacy.

I love the molasses chips. Bite sized, crisp and delicious. If I want something sweet but not a large piece of candy, I'll always reach for a chip.

R71 Hands off, perv!

R71 You just beat me to it; I love their molasses chips, too.

The brown sugar squares are my favorite. A friend send me a pound every Christmas since I moved back east from Los Angeles. I keep them in the freezer and ration them out all year. There's a store in Pittsburgh now so I can get them more often.

The parents and grandparents in my west coast family grew up poor and identified See's with the postwar good life, I think. All of us kiddies raided the See's boxes and watched "The Wizard of Oz" on television at holiday gatherings.

For me, See's is my definition of good chocolate. Mind you, I don't particularly like chocolate, but any company that make that Mayfair filling has my attention for life.

I finally tried these today. Someone gave me a box. They taste more like sugar than like chocolate. Quite the disappointment, actually, from a chocolate-lover's perspective.

I've had See's candy when I was out on the West Coast, and I usually bring some of their Victorian Toffee home. Nothing, however, compares with the old Chicago standbys of Andes Candies and Fannie Mae. Both of them used to have corner candy stores, where you could buy chocolates by the individual piece. Andes closed down the stores first, probably back in the 1960's or 70's, and Fannie Mae continued on until the mid 1990's when they closed down. They were eventually taken over by some firm in the south, and have reopened some stores, but no where like the number they used to have. We also used to have Frango Mints from Marshall Field & Co. They used to actually be prepared on one of the upper floors of the Field Store on State Street, but when Target took Field's over, and eventually sold the store off to Macy, who totally destroyed the store, the quality dropped off as they were also outsourced to a southern manufacturer. The big original Mars candy factory is also located here in Chicago, and my dad's cousin worked there. He was able to buy boxes of "mistakes" for either fifty cents or a dollar for a dozen. Having a lot of little Polish stores in the neighborhood, one thing that amazes me is that the Polish stores will sell Snickers and Milky Way bars imported from Poland, while the original factory where they are still made is right in the neighborhood. No difference between them except the Polish ones are smaller.

I have sufficient.

R77, I like See's a lot, but admit the candy is on the sweet side. Which candy did you eat?

[quote]We also used to have Frango Mints from Marshall Field & Co. They used to actually be prepared on one of the upper floors of the Field Store on State Street, but when Target took Field's over, and eventually sold the store off to Macy, who totally destroyed the store, the quality dropped off as they were also outsourced to a southern manufacturer.

I remember Frangos from Frederick & Nelson in Seattle, where they originated. Marshall Field started making them when they bought Frederick's. Does anyone remember who killed Frederick's? Was it Marshall Field itself, or whoever bought Marshall Field?

R80, it was an assortment. The box said "truffles," but they were just filled with different flavors of goop. The only distinctively flavored ones were lemon and chocolate. Mostly they tasted sweet.

Grew up with it in California. We had one on the corner of Wilshire & Euclid in Santa Monica next to the Vons Market. It's basically still there, though they had to move down the block at some point.

California Brittle was always a favorite as well as the suckers.

I am a chocolate fiend and love the finest chocolate (Teusher, La Maison Du Chocolat) great artisan stuff like Valerie and John and Kira's- but NOTHING satisfies like Sees. I bought 3 boxes for Christmas guests.

I don't give a fuck when anyone says- the best chocolates for the money. Down to earth, no frills, but yummy.

Someone who thinks "NOTHING satisfies like Sees" cannot call himself a chocolate lover. Not my kind of chocolate lover, anyway. "Dissatisfied" is a perfect word for my reaction to the See's-produced sugar rush I had today.

Mary See turned me into a chocoholic Mary!

The store alone makes See’s the best ever.

I think the original Marshall Field & Company had both Frederick & Nelson and the Crescent Store as divisions. I believe they were killed off after British American Tobacco bought out Field's. They previously had another division called the Davis Store, down the street on State Street, a kind of lower cost store, that eventually was sold to Goldblatt Brothers.