See’s Candies opens store in Rialto

On a sunny Friday morning over 200 people flocked to the new See’s Candies that opened on April 12in the Renaissance Marketplace. Before the doors opened after the ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m. hundreds of people waited in line for a chance to be the first 100 people to get a free goodie bag of free See’s Candies. Everyone else on Friday got a free box of chocolates with a $25 purchase.

Raul Cerda, Regional Sales Manager for See’s Candies, was responsible for choosing the Rialto location, between The Habit and Children’s Dentist office. Everyone remarked at the unique location for the candy store and spoke about how excited they were to be working with their new neighbors. Sandy O’Connell one of the people waiting in line Friday said, “it will be hard to get my kids past the See’s Candies store as they leave the Habit.”

All this retail action taking place offers Rialto residents a means to spend their money locally and boosting the local economy. One Rialto resident is benefiting from the ability to shop local and work locally, too. Danna Avendano is the store manager for the Rialto location. We learned that Danna has worked for See’s Candies for 11 years and lived in Rialto for 7 years.

President of See’s Candies Pat Egan shared his own excitement over bringing a store to the city of Rialto. “The development of the new Renaissance Marketplace and its early success spoke volumes to the team at See’s Candies,” he remarked.

Another great opportunity for Rialto is that fact that we now have stores that other cities don’t have. Mr. Egan said one factor in choosing Rialto is the lack of a local store. “Before today people would have to travel to San Bernardino or Rancho Cucamonga to get See’s Candies, not anymore.”

See’s Candies is happy to offer products produced, made and packaged right here in California. Mr. Egan also shared that there are no preservatives in See’s Candies products, evident in the ingredients list. The city was well represented by Mayor Deborah Robertson, Councilmen Andy Carrizales and Rafael Trujillo, City Clerk Barbara McGee and City Treasurer Ed Carrillo.