At first glance, it looks like a scene frozen in time.
Behind the creaking wooden counter of the world’s oldest sweet shop, glass jars brim with pear drops, kola cubes and rhubarb and custards while customers still ask for ‘a quarter’ just as generations before them did nearly 200 years ago.
But behind the nostalgia and sugar-coated charm of The Oldest Sweet Shop in the World lies a modern business battling rising costs, online competition and the fallout from Rachel Reeves‘ tax hikes.
Owner Ben Howie, 29, who took over the famous North Yorkshire institution shortly before Covid struck, says recent increases to
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