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Candy and ice cream lovers can now rejoice! After months of waiting, Scoops is now open in Downtown Bainbridge, serving up something for every sweet tooth.

Owned by Doug and Sherry Young, the franchise has long been an idea of Sherry’s.

“Sherry has been wanting to do something for a long time and she’s thought about it, but she didn’t want to compete against anybody locally with a bakery or a coffee shop,” Doug said.

“I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” Sherry admitted.

She went through various ideas, ranging from a hot dog stand to an all you can-eat burger joint, but nothing seemed to fit.

Just as Sherry had nearly given up on ideas, she and Doug were visiting McDonough and toured their square, where they entered a Scoops.

“I think as soon as we walked in, we were like this is what Bainbridge needs,” Sherry said.

Doug was on board completely, stating they returned home and purchased the building downtown, before even finalizing the franchise. “

We knew at that point we wanted to do an ice cream store or candy store,” Doug said. “We just didn’t know if it would be that franchise or a different one.”

Within a month, though, Sherry had made up her mind that she wanted to finalize her franchise with Scoops.

“We liked the idea of a franchise, because someone already knew the vendors and the types of candies people liked,” Sherry said.

The various vendors provided Scoops with more than 300 different types of specialty candies for their Bainbridge location.

Once finalized, Scoops sent in a designer to design what they wanted the store to look like.

However, Doug said they did change some of the plans, such as the floors and ceilings.

Scoops designers were impressed with the changes made by the couple and now are using the downtown location as their model store.

“We just added little touches that made it classier,” Sherry said. “We also added some things in the kitchen that we thought could eventually be a problem in the future, if not done now.”

The look of the store and the added color and flair provided for an amazing opening weekend.

“The franchise owners had told us the first couple days would be very busy,” Sherry said. “They said we would be surprised at how many people showed up.”

Sherry said knowing that, along with the fact that residents have been waiting since April to see what came of the location, really prepared her for what was to come.

“We were little later opening than what we thought, but everything turned out great,” she said.

On opening day, lines were formed out the door for guests waiting for ice cream and candy.
Early reports indicated that ice cream and bulk candy sales were the hottest items, which Sherry said surprised even the franchisers.

“Usually they said ice cream is the top seller,” she said.

While it’s only been a few days, Sherry and Doug both agreed that they love this new venture they’re on together and have enjoyed seeing all the customer’s faces and reactions to the store.

“Little kids walk in, and it’s like they’ve never seen anything like this before,” Sherry said. “It’s even a physical reaction. There were faces I’ve never seen before.”

The couple is appreciative of all the community support and hopes to see even more friendly faces in the coming weeks.

The store is located at 211 East Water Street and is open Tuesday- Thursday from 11- 9 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 11-10 p.m. and on Sundays from 2-7 p.m.