With Dulce Candles, Saniyah Thompson lighting way for future entrepreneurs
WILLOW GROVE, Pa. (CBS) -- She's a young entrepreneur who had some big dreams, but they aren't just dreams anymore. Saniyah Thompson did it -- she opened her first specialty candle brick and mortar inside the Willow Grove Mall.
"Everything was all white, all the shelves were all white," Thompson said. "We literally just had to move our stuff in."
Humbled and grateful, she showed off some of her favorite cupcake candles along with a few new yummy scents.
"We have our sugar cookie one, banana pudding, hot chocolate, caramel popcorn, vanilla lavender, cinnamon bun," Thompson said. "I don't know if we had cinnamon last time."
It's been just over a year since we first met Thompson whipping up these dessert replica candles inside her small workshop.
She now splits her time between her pop-up inside Cherry Hill Mall and her new retail store and, of course, along for the ride is her A team.
"So, this is mom, my right hand," Thompson said. "She's usually here at the register, checking people out, making candles. My grandma helps me from time to time with the wafers. She's pretty good with all the extra stuff."
We remember her grandmother. She's traded in fruit loops wax melts for banana wafers -- a tedious task that's handled with love.
Thompson has added a new candle line to the mix.
"She said, 'Mom, I'm going to start making cakes, how are you going to make them?'" Thompson's mom said.
She figured it out. Custom candle cakes, for maybe a birthday, wedding, or gender reveal party.
Although the store is filled with candles, it's also a place for young entrepreneurs to showcase their products like this light installation.
"Many people have tried to help me and I just want to be that person to other young kids and just people around my age," Thompson said. "Because they're not too far from me."
The store may have been Thompson's dream, but it's a family business where customers also become family.
