Brach's

Emil J Brach used his life savings (reportedly about $1,000) to open the impressive sounding Brach’s Palace Of Sweets in Chicago in 1904.  He started with one kettle, it says here; presumably that was for making sweets, we all know that Americans don’t know how to make a decent cup of tea.  A true illustration of the American dream, by 1923 he had four factories making over 2 million pounds of candy a year, he then spent $5m on building one giant factory to replace them.

Most importantly, the concept of “Pick & Mix” is often attributed to Brach’s; from 1958 customers could choose various things from bulk containers and scoop their choices into one bag, paying a price per pound – it was known as “Pick-A-Mix”.  So we have much gratitude in this area!  Their corporate offices are in the famous Old Post Office Building in Chicago, which you will have almost certainly seen in a film or TV show without knowing what it was.