By Tim Kelly
The name Jilly’s represents Ocean City’s very own Boardwalk Empire.
The iconic name, brand of the Levchuk family, officially launched its newest venture on Friday, Jilly’s Candy Factory at 1040 Boardwalk.
It’s the ninth Jilly’s location since its first and most famous business, Jilly’s Arcade opened in 1976. The other Jilly’s stores offer T-shirts and casual clothing, French Fries, and ice cream.
So why candy?
“Why not?” shot back Director of Operations Jody Levchuk. “If you look at our stores they all appear to be very different. But we are really selling the same thing: feel-good products. Things for when people are on vacation or just out having fun.
“And everything that goes into our businesses,” he said, “from finding and hiring our valued employees to dealing with vendors, fulfillment, it’s all done the same way. Candy falls right in line with everything else we do.”
To say Jilly’s Candy Factory offers a wide range of choices would be an understatement.
Yesterday following the Business Person’s Plunge at 9
th Street beach, Jilly’s was among seven new businesses taking the plunge into serving some of the 80,000 visitors expected in town over the course of the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Mayor Jay Gillian was on hand to help cut the ribbon at Jilly’s Candy Factory and make the opening official.
With Friday’s gorgeous weather bringing out a large crowd for the opening, Jody Levchuk calmly answered his phone and handled customer questions as he paused to speak with an OCNJDaily reporter.
“This place is going to be here forever,” he said. “When we advertised for help, we were immediately swamped with kids who want to be a part of our first summer.”
Levchuk’s brother Randy said work on the new store began in October of 2017, and it “about 80 percent completed.”
Jody, Randy and their wives (Jill and Ksenia, respectively) work at the stores, as do numerous other family members going back three generations.
The exterior and main entrance of the new Jilly’s Candy Factory.
“My kids don’t work here,” Jody said, only half kidding about daughters Leni, 5; and Jordyn, 4. Randy and Ksenia are the proud parents of Victor, 3; and Viktoria, 1.
The company’s origins date back to Boardwalk businesses in the northern part of the state owned and operated by Jody and Randy’s great grandfather. Next came their grandfather, then dad Paul, and mom Jill (the namesake of all the businesses) who opened the arcade at 1168 Boardwalk.
Jilly’s Arcade is one of the very few Boardwalk businesses which is open year-round. For decades it was open 24 hours, seven days a week.
It became a home of sorts for numerous Ocean City residents.
“I used to go there all the time as a kid,” said Rich Kalman, now in his 50s. “It was the only place you knew that whatever time it was, whatever the weather was, you could go in there and hang out.”
To this day, the arcade retains its original charm with old-school pinball machines, pool, air hockey and skee-ball sharing space with some of the more modern video-style arcade games.
An electric train display depicting Ocean City, the Boardwalk and Jilly’s growing stable of stores is a highlight of the new Jilly’s Candy Factory.
“People remember it and we try to keep it classic,” Jody said, “and it still has one of the best prices on the boardwalk. Ten cents for a game of skee-ball.”
He said keeping the arcade open year round and the other businesses for as long as possible year round was important to serve their customers and their employees.
“We have really great and loyal employees and nobody wants to be idle in the off-season,” Jody said.
With that in mind, Jody said he envisions the Candy Factory as another year-round operation.
The store offers bulk candy sold by weight, packaged candy, and numerous novelty-type products.
“It’s a work in progress and there is a lot of trial and error in trying to find products the people want, but that’s one of the fun aspects, trying to figure all that out,” he said.
From the looks of things on Friday, the Levchuks appeared to be doing just that.
