The sweet taste of success for a pandemic-born business

Pandemic-born business booms If you've got a sweet tooth or a junk food craving, a group of Vancouver entrepreneurs have the solution.

VANCOUVER — If you've got your snack on this store is for you. It's a junk food junkie's paradise and once you enter, if you dare, you'll be in hog heaven.

One day it was the old and shuttered location of RYU Apparel on Vancouver's Thurlow Street and seemingly, overnight a bold and colourful new business emerged with an unusual name. Dank Mart is hard not to notice and even if you don't like candy, snacks and everything processed, it's hard not to stop and look.

"Dank Mart was born in the pandemic, which is crazy to say," explained Spensir Sangara, one of the Dank Mart's founders.

The first location emerged on Main Street in South Vancouver right next to their licensed cannabis store. And what a perfect match, "dank" in the cannabis world means "excellent" and when you get the munchies naturally, there's a snack store to fill your needs.

"When the munchies hit –boom," chuckled Sangara, who also goes by the alias "Snack Bundles." Clearly, he's in charge of marketing.

The second location on Thurlow Street opened in mid-July and Sangara says they've been very busy.

He says customers lined up on opening day to get in. There's a wall of cereal with all the sugary favorites and then some. Nostalgic candy you may have forgotten about like Dunkaroos and Pop Rocks and even some new entries into the junk food market. They also have chips, ice cream and of course cannabis paraphernalia.

One unusual product we found was Crush Dessert Topper, a bright orange syrupy looking liquid. Sangara suggests pouring it on ice cream and says it will taste like a Creamsicle. How much sugar is in it?

"You know what. That's not important," said Sangara.

Good point. Be prepared to loosen your belt, let go of your New Year's resolutions and succumb to your cravings – then immediately head to the gym.