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Longtime Minonk soda fountain and candy store up for sale
By Laura Rineer
lrineer@mtco.com
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MINONK -- Pop’s Sweet Shop, a popular Minonk soda fountain and candy store, is up for sale.

“We are not in financial trouble. We aren’t just going to close,” owner Shelly Butler said. “But we are going to sell.”

Butler and her two sisters share ownership of the business, which opened in May 2003.

“After my mom died, my dad was kind of lost,” she said. “So we bought Pop’s. And it was just wonderful for him.”

But last year her dad died and the business, 570 N. Chestnut St., became too big of a responsibility for her to run on her own.

Butler said the family decided to wait a year before making any decisions regarding Pop’s.

“We’ve been tossing the idea around since around Christmas,” she said. “We didn’t want to make any quick decisions.”

Butler, the mother of four, also works as a nurse at the McLean County Jail.

“It’s just getting to be too much,” she said. “The whole thing is very bittersweet for us.”

Butler said her hope is to sell the place to a Minonk family, who will preserve the essence of Pop’s.

“We won’t sell to just anyone,” she said. “We want it to stay how it is, and we want them to keep the staff. I’m hoping whoever buys it will keep making it better.”

It is the community that has made Pop’s what it is, Butler said.

“We have one couple who travels from Georgia to Minnesota to visit their family every year, and they always stop,” she said.

“They just stumbled upon it one day and they keep coming back. And we have such good, loyal customers.”

Take a look
Drew Barth, 5, of Minonk, looked over the candy selection at Pop's Sweet Shop in downtown Minonk. Photos 8-15-2003
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Reader comments on this story - 1 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

michelle24 wrote on Apr 8, 2008 4:30 PM:

" We had a family birthday party there a few months ago, and we just loved it. I wish you well, Butler family, and thanks for the "sweet" memories! I hope it will carry on as it does now. "
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