Becoming the world’s largest candy store is quite an achievement, even one featuring a worldwide chocolatey phenom like M&M’s. It’s more than impressive to fill an entire multi-level retail store with a single-product focus, especially when it spans 35,000 square feet and stars thousands of round colorful cuties with crunchy coatings and yummy chocolate innards. But the edible M&M’s share center stage with spunky, larger-than-life candy characters planted throughout the colorful kingdom, plus lots more attractions.
It’s easy to imagine that candy store residing in the same country as Mars Inc., the longtime maker and purveyor of M&M candies. First bets would be the New York City M&M’s store tumbling across the heart of Broadway in iconic Times Square. But don’t lay bucks on those odds, because the world’s largest candy store lies across the pond in England’s capital city. London takes the prize for size, while also hitting all the right retail notes for experiential shopping. The store holds a separate, but related, claim to fame: the world’s biggest chocolate wall, featuring more than 100 M&M’s varieties.
The London M&M’s store perches in the pulse of Leicester Square in West London, a few skips-and-jumps from renowned theater houses, music venues, iconic hotels, and endless eateries. It takes the cake for standout design, vibrant rushing colors, and commercial-style fun, no matter the age. After all, M&M’s devotion doesn’t just involve popping those sweet treats in your mouth; It’s also about childhood memories, whether making new ones or revisiting yesteryear nostalgia.
Here’s what fans of M&M’s can expect at the massive London store
For such an extravagant attention-getting retailer, the London M&Ms store supposedly holds back a few secrets for casual inquiring minds. Getting the pre-visit skinny on all the fun requires sharing your email address “to be in the know.” Only afterward do you get what’s touted as advance intel on what awaits inside the doors. However, the upfront knowledge available on the company website offers a few glimpses.
First of all, you’ll find giant M&M’s statues in various states of stepping, reclining, laughing, lounging, and pointing toward unknown nooks and crannies. There’s an M&M’s travel road on the ground floor, plus dedicated “character zones” for chocolate meet-and-greets with your favorite color (each of which has its own distinct personality). Of course, there’s that massive chocolate wall, which doesn’t refer to a physical wall oozing with chocolate. It’s instead a very well-stocked display wall full of tall see-through cylinders, all stacked with countless M&M candies, each in a singular bright color and M&M’s flavor.
On a retail level, you’ll find sections in the London store for gift-giving, themed apparel, and toys. Perhaps the most unique experiences involve the M&M’s mood analyzer and a special zone for customizing candies. The mood analyzer is a wall-mounted scanning kiosk that identities your “color mood.” In the personalization zone, visitors can print their own faces on M&M’s milk chocolate candies. This feature is also available online; Just click the “design your own” tab on the M&M’s website, and follow directions.
