Fudge shop moving to Princeton Depot

PRINCETON — The downturn in the economy has forced a Princeton business to move.

Carolyn Diller of Covered Bridge Fudge Shop will move her store from the Windchimer on North Main Street just south of the railroad tracks where she has been for the past five and one-half years. Diller will be relocating her store to the west end of the Princeton Depot, about one block west.

“I love the Windchimer. I love antiques, but there has not been as much traffic due to the economy,” she said. “My lease was up June 15, and I decided not to sign it because the rent was being raised. I had too high of overhead.”

Most of the antique dealers that were located at Diller’s shop have not been making money on the sale of their items due to the economy, she said. They are either storing their antiques or getting out of the business. Of the 12 dealers she once had at the store, only four are still there.

“Antiques are something you don’t have to buy,” she said. “I still will make fudge here and cut it. I want to bring some of my gift items here and will sell coffee for riders getting off and on the trains.”

Since the new location will be four times smaller than her old location, Diller won’t have the space to sell antiques at her new shop. She will sell some old and new items at an auction at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Windchimer, 1101 N. Main St., Princeton.

“It will be different,” she said. “I will miss it over there, but I am really looking forward to coming here.”

She will sell pre-packaged products for travelers plus the fudge. Gift items she will sell are candles, jams and jellies, city of Princeton and covered bridge souvenirs plus Christmas ornaments and pencils.

Diller still wanted to sell her 150 flavors of fudge she makes at fairs and festivals during the summer and fall months. In order to do that, she needed a health department approved kitchen.

A person isn’t allowed to sell fudge they make out of their home due to health department regulations.

She plans on selling about 14 different flavors of fudge at her shop. The varieties will vary depending on the time of the year, with some diabetic flavors of fudge also being offered.

“I need to make some fudge here, once I get approval from the health department,” she said. “My first fair is July 8.”

Diller made 30 different flavors of fudge or about 1,800 pounds of fudge last year to sell at the Covered Bridge Festival in Indiana, with about one-third of that being peanut butter fudge. Her other big sellers in Indiana are chocolate and chocolate walnut.

The city of Princeton leases the depot from the railroad and was looking to get some rent for the space formerly occupied by the railroad club for three years, said Diller.

Diller feels like she has come back to a place that brings back fond memories when she was a girl growing up in Princeton.

“I remember coming here as a girl because it was the old freight office. My parents had the mail contract, so they took the mail from the post office to the railroad,” she said. “I would come here with them. Now I am back here with my shop.”

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