Candy is displayed in bowls at Sweets and Beats. Photo by Diana Martinez.
When customers walk into Sweets and Beats, they are hit with a colorful array of nostalgia and amusement in bowls of vintage candy and boxes of used records. Bright green walls set the background to multicolored packages of gummy bears and pixie sticks. On an opposite wall sits crates of mostly used records, highlighting the owners’ love for rock and punk music.
Married couple Liam Murtagh and Emily Spetrino-Murtagh opened the store with the intention of giving customers a unique experience. Shoppers can find candy not stocked in local grocery stores — favorites such as Candy Buttons, candy cigarettes and Walnettos, and lesser-known Idaho Spuds (marshmallow wrapped in chocolate wrapped in coconut). For music, Sweets and Beats carries ska, punk, new wave and reggae.
“We knew we wanted a record store, but with something more,” Murtagh says. “We were like ‘What’s something different?’ and we both agreed upon candy. It’s so weird, but so perfect.”
The walls are also lined with art from local artists, old-fashioned pranks like whoopee cushions, instruments and books of various titles. A rack of $7 T-shirts sits in front of an old organ and turntable.
“It’s like a thrift-candy-record-consignment shop,” Spetrino-Murtagh says.
A variety of goods are sold at Sweet and Beats. Photo by Diana Martinez
The old-fashioned candy comes from various wholesale Web sites and from Excel Ice Cream and Candy Co. in Phoenix. Candy ranges from $0.50 to $2. As for the records, nothing is over about $20.
“It’s important to us that customers know that we are trying to keep our prices as low as possible,” Spetrino-Murtagh says.
The couple says Sweets and Beats attracts a wide variety of customers because of the nostalgia and the “universal” love of candy.
“We get the same crowd as the Bikini Lounge and Trunk Space, the people just walking around Grand [Avenue],” Murtagh says. “The store is kind of an extension of who we are.”
ASU business management sophomore and Murtagh’s cousin Sara Diehl agrees Sweets and Beats mirrors the quirky personalities of the owners.
“The atmosphere definitely reflects Liam and Emily,” Diehl says. “It’s weird candy and weird music, and it just works for them. They do what they love everyday and it shows.”
All the furniture in the store was found in thrift stores, revamped and hand-painted by the couple. The transformation of the space started in the early summer of 2009, and the store opened in October.
“Aesthetically, this is what we like,” Murtagh says. “We took cheap, ugly furniture from thrift shops and our parents and we made it pretty. We made it look like a store we would shop in.”
Murtagh and Spetrino-Murtagh aimed for the decor to be happy and young, they say.
“We want people to leave feeling a super happy vibe and be nostalgic,” Spetrino-Murtagh says.
In addition to selling various odds and ends, Sweets and Beats holds a comedy night every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Every third Saturday, in conjunction with the Trunk Space, the shared backyard becomes a venue for people to come and sell whatever they would like, Spetrino-Murtagh says. They have also held music shows in the shop.
“There’s a lot to really enjoy,” Diehl says. “They do the comedy shows and have musicians, and not a lot of shops are doing that. Plus, you don’t have to be 21, which is nice.”
Sweets and Beats was an idea for years and it developed throughout the couple’s relationship. The couple met in high school and has been married for four years.
The Sweets and Beats shop is where the beats don't stop. Photo by Diana Martinez.
They say Sweets and Beats is a conscious attempt to help revitalize the Grand Avenue area. Spetrino-Murtagh grew up in Mesa and Murtagh grew up in Glendale, and they both agree that Phoenix is coming to its own degree of identity.
“I love Phoenix and the people here,” Spetrino-Murtagh says. “There’s this idea that Phoenix can’t be cool, but it’s one of the coolest places we’ve been to, and we’ve traveled a lot. We hope this place becomes a staple in Phoenix.”
Murtagh credits the lack of foot traffic on Phoenix streets to it being so new, compared to other city districts.
“There are awesome areas in Phoenix, like Roosevelt Row and the Camelback area up by Stinkweeds, but a lot of Phoenix is so new and no one’s willing to give it a chance,” Murtagh says. “The areas are not as known. It’s a struggle. It’s all part of the resurgence of Grand Avenue.”
If you go…
1504 NW Grand Ave.
Phoenix, 85007
602-253-9258
www.myspace.com/sweetsandbeats
Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 5 – 10 p.m.
Friday-Saturday: 5 – 11 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
Contact the reporter at erica.m.rodriguez@asu.edu
Loading ...
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }