East End Confectionery closing its doors

A town institution may be closing this month after more than 80 years in business.
The East End Confectionery, owned by Neil and Doreen Kabel and Tara and Scott Hamilton, currently is having a liquidation sale in preparation for closing its doors.
“I’m figuring we’ll probably close by the 16th of October, but that’s just a guestimate,” Tara Hamilton said Thursday morning.
The decision comes following an armed robbery at the store Sept. 22. The suspect robbed the cash register at gunpoint and then fled on foot.
Hamilton said while this robbery played a role in their decision, it also was based on other factors.
“We’ve been debating this for the last couple years,” she noted. “[The robbery] was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
This was not the first time the store had been robbed. Hamilton said her father, Neil Kabel, was robbed a knife-point a couple of years ago.
The two couples have owned the store since 1992, but it has been in existence much longer than that.
“Some of our customers are in their 80s, and they remember coming here when they were kids,” Hamilton noted.
“That’s the reason we bought the store in the first place. My mom used to come here as a kid,” she added.
Hamilton said they have received some calls from people interested in buying the property to continue running the store.
“That would be the ideal situation,” she remarked, noting the historical and sentimental value of the store to many townspeople. “It’s been a really good business for us.”
While she will miss the business, Hamilton said she is ready to pursue other work.
“I love the people part of the job. I’m going to really miss my customers,” she said. [But] it’s time for me to move on and do something else.”