Schimpff's Confectionery celebrates 130 years in business

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) – Jeffersonville’s oldest retail store hit a big milestone this weekend.

Schimpff’s Confectionery is celebrating 130 years and the road to get there has for the most part, been pretty sweet.

Never far from a boiling vat of their family’s famous red hots, Warren Schimpff and his wife Jill have seen a lot in the years they have worked at their downtown Jeffersonville store.

“To think that we've been able to persist here for 130 years, it's just mind boggling,” said co-owner Warren Schimpff.

Opened April 11, 1891 by Warren’s great Grandfather, the store has seen quite a few changes since. It’s expanded to several times its original size, added more retail space, employees, and a museum – but several things have not changed – still hand making their candy on the original table from 130 years ago.

Schimpff's red hots — Pictured: red hots being made at Schimpff's Confectionary, which opened on Spring Street in Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1891. (WDRB image)

“I hope another 100, or more or whatever. You just don't know and have no control over that,” said Schimpff.

Another thing the company couldn’t control – two global pandemics that impacted their business – the current one and the one from 1918.

“I never heard the family mention that they had trouble during the 1918 pandemic, maybe they did I don't know that," Schimpff said. "That's lost through history."

Also in its history – the flood of 1937. The waters eventually flooded the second story of the business.

Through it all Schimpff’s stayed afloat. When they are not pouring, scraping, cranking, or cracking the candy, they’re often chatting with the tourists and regulars who have helped keep them going.

“If we didn't have a community around us that bought our candies, supported us, we wouldn't have survived,” Schimpff said.

The Schimpffs say they don’t have any plans on slowing down, but if that time comes, they know future generations will slide in to help.

“It's been one of the greatest joys of my life to keep the family business going but also keeping the community history going," Schimpff said. “I didn't have a business plan like you are supposed to have. We built it, they came, and we continued. I can’t explain it, the words – I can’t explain the feeling it gives you.”

You can check out the store on Spring Street in downtown Jeffersonville Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.