***UPDATE*** This store is now closed
Located within the Westfield Shopping Center is the Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop. From the Rocket Fizz website that contains a news article about this establishment:
Rocket Fizz has lifted off in Palm Desert, offering a unique fix for anyone wanting a sugar high.
The new retro soda pop and candy shop in the lower level of Westfield Palm Desert shopping center packs hundreds of different kinds of glass-bottled soda pops — with flavors as wacky as Peanut Butter & Jelly, Bacon and Buffalo Wing.
Although franchise owner Brian Williamson has been operating the store a short time, it has created a buzz among the young and old who often laugh as they peruse shelves filled with blue and yellow sodas, nostalgic candies, gag gifts, retro posters and more.
On Monday, employee Denise Abriel helped a retired Rancho Mirage couple look for Moxie, one of the first mass-produced sodas in the United States. Abriel took the job, in part, because she’s a candy aficionado of sorts, so she is able to help customers find everything from old-fashioned stick candies to Ballpark Gum featuring hot dog, beer and peanut flavoring.
Williamson said he was attracted to the concept because it focuses on “fun and entertainment,” a welcome change after spending two decades in the corporate world.
“We are the only store like this for 100 miles,” Williamson said, adding that he hopes to eventually rank among the top 30 locations nationwide.
The 500-square-foot store packs hundreds of different kinds of candies ranging from Necco wafers to candy cigarettes to special items made in England and Japan. There is Turkish Taffy — and 150 other kinds of taffy.
Rocket Fizz also stocks items such as whoopee cushions, packs of gum that deliver an electric shock to those trying to grab a piece, potato guns and 3D glasses. Customers also can find an old Jerry Garcia concert poster from 1967 or an Incredible Hulk action figure.
Each store varies its inventory to cater to local clientele. Abriel said customers can have custom labels such as personal anniversary wishes applied to soda bottles or get creative with gift baskets.
Entrepreneurs Robert Powells and Ryan Morgan launched Rocket Fizz five years ago as a soda manufacturer. In 2009, the first store opened at Old Town Camarillo.
Now there are about 30 franchises across the country, including one in downtown Pasadena and another slated to open in Santa Monica.
Rocket Fizz has launched products under its own label and under celebrity labels such as its popular Judge Wapner brand. Wapner is the well-known TV judge and Powells’ uncle, and he has traveled to the stores to sign autographs and “sentence” people to drink his root beer.
One of the most popular sodas is the Johnnie Ryan brand out of Niagara Falls, Morgan said. Rocket Fizz was its first distributor west of the Mississippi River.
“It’s amazing stuff,” Morgan said.
Maria Quiroz of Indio and a friend laughed as they eyed Martian Soda and its slogan “Taste the Abduction.”
“Some of these things are really weird,” Quiroz said with a laugh.