Mindy’s Munchies offers a wide selection of gifts.
Harry Mosca will always remember spending time around a kitchen island with friends, trying to convince his wife Mindy to turn her baking hobby into a business.
Their efforts paid off when Mosca began bringing her chocolate-dipped treats to homes in her neighborhood. “We’ve had an overwhelming amount of support from our friends and family,” Mosca said.
The couple opened their first Mindy’s Munchies store in Norwood, New Jersey, in 2006. Friends and family helped design the store’s logo, website and interior.
Harry Mosca was working in Manhattan at the time, commuting back and forth every day, and Mindy Mosca wanted to be close enough to home that they could take their kids to and from school and be there in case of an emergency, and this place was only two miles away.
Today, the brand is a franchise, with locations in New Jersey and Florida and franchise stores under construction in New Jersey and Maine. The company sells a variety of chocolate-dipped treats, including marshmallows, Oreos, pretzels, waffle cones and more. The brand offers more than just chocolate, with other toppings like graham crackers, coconut and pecans.
In 2016, Harry Mosca quit his job in Manhattan to help his wife, but before that, he worked late nights to help the business. “Before technology came along, I’d be there at 2 or 3 a.m., manually entering addresses into the FedEx system,” he says. “As we got more experienced and the technology came in, it got easier and easier.”
The initial investment required to open a Mindy’s Munchies store ranges from $174,000 to $315,000.
With cocoa prices rising, the Moscas are working to increase their volumes and reduce their margins so they don’t get priced out of the market, Harry Mosca said. “It’s served us really well in terms of our business model, because we’re not the cheapest place in the market, but we’re also not the most expensive place in the market by a long shot. We’re providing a substantial amount of product for the price,” he said.
Corporate gifts are a major revenue source for Mindy’s Munchies. The company even hosts birthday parties and girls’ nights where guests can make their own treats.
Mindy Mosca prides herself on her creativity and offers desserts that are different from those offered by other gift-oriented candy stores.
“I remember waking up at 3 a.m. with a ‘Eureka’ idea. It was like, ‘I’m going to take a marshmallow, I’m going to dip it in caramel, then I’m going to cover it in caramel bits, and then I’m going to dip it in dark chocolate or milk chocolate,’” Mosca recalls. “Not being a marshmallow person, I was like, ‘OK, it’s 3 a.m., can’t you wait a few hours?’”
His wife’s creation changed his perspective on the chewy treat, although he pointed out that everything tastes better when it’s covered in chocolate.
Mindy Mosca has created Girl Scout cookie-inspired desserts, her own peanut butter cups and cookie butter offerings. Biscoff cookie butter is transformed into a cup-shaped treat, with chocolate on the outside and cookie butter on the inside, plus pretzel pieces on top.
“It’s my favorite thing in the world,” Harry Mosca said.
The brand significantly reduces its waste by using less desirable products, like broken pretzels from the bottom of a bag, in its products. Mindy Mosca created “Jersey junk,” which consists of a chocolate base and random broken and unsold items, like those pretzels or leftover graham crackers, which she crushes and mixes together.
Mindy’s Munchies is looking for owner-operators who, at least initially, will be present in the store on a daily basis. Networking within the community through advertising and attending events is also essential.
“Nobody runs a business like an owner-operator,” he said. “Nobody can cut costs, nobody provides the same level of customer service, nobody has more passion than an owner-operator.”
