Since its opening in 1921, the covered shopping district Nickels Arcade has been a hub for University of Michigan students and the larger Ann Arbor community alike. The Michigan Daily Business beat interviewed some of these businesses to highlight the current state of the Arcade. Read the other stories here.
The vibrant pink-and-red window display of Bon Bon Bon invites Nickels Arcade visitors to enter the store and peruse bon bons and other sweet treats. The store offers 23 bon bon flavors year-round, in addition to rotating bons for each month, season and zodiac sign.
The Ann Arbor location opened in the fall of 2020 and is one of three Bon Bon Bon storefronts throughout eastern Michigan. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Alexandra Clark, Bon Bon Bon founder and president, said despite the business’ previous success as a pop-up shop in Ann Arbor, she only decided to open an Ann Arbor storefront once she found a space in the Arcade.
“I kind of made an agreement with myself that we would only go back (to Ann Arbor) if we could go to Nickels Arcade,” Clark said. “It didn’t come up until the pandemic and one of the shops was downsizing. It was funny because I told my husband, and he was like, ‘It’s the middle of a pandemic, are you really sure you want to open a retail store?’ And I was like, ‘You don’t understand, it’s Nickels Arcade.’ ”
According to Clark, the chocolates sold at Bon Bon Bon are made with high-quality and ethically-sourced ingredients, from the cacao to the packaging. Clark said they try to source materials locally when possible and maintain relationships with their suppliers who are further away.
“We have a really direct and traceable connection to our (cacao) growers in Ecuador,” Clark said. “We’re really lucky to do that because of our partner who’s just a longtime friend of mine, Jenny, who owns a company called Conexion … it allows us to have full transparency in terms of testing for heavy metals, or receipts the whole way to the farmer. It’s a real relationship, and those prices are based on quality.”
Clark said the quality of Bon Bon Bon’s ingredients is part of what makes the company and their products special.
“Sometimes it feels like cheating when you’re making bons, because you’re taking all of these amazingly delicious things and then putting them all together,” Clark said. “You’re like, is there any combination that we could put together that wouldn’t taste good?”
Another unique aspect of Bon Bon Bon is their recyclable packaging. In an interview with The Daily, store manager Rose Nash said Clark designed their corrugated honeycomb cardboard boxes using a machine made by Clark’s dad. This design allows the store to customize packaging for their customers on the spot.
“It’s totally up to the customer, they can choose any size (box) that they want,” Nash said. “However many (bon bons), odd, even … then we cut that little box out for them, and then we can fill it up.”
Clark said she was inspired to design packaging that could be customized to any amount of bon bons after realizing how packaging can shape the experience at a chocolate shop.
“In most chocolate shops, if you get like a billion pieces, it comes in this big fancy box, and then if you get one piece, it comes in hamburger patty paper,” Clark said. “I got ‘patty papered’ in Paris after this super well-dressed guy walked away with this giant box of chocolate, and I was like, there has to be a better way … there’s different appropriate amounts (of chocolate) for different occasions, and you can’t just honor the big occasions.”
According to Nash, many summer customers skip the boxes all together and instead eat their bon bons immediately to avoid melting.
“In summer it’s kind of hard, especially because Ann Arbor is a walking location,” Nash said. “Everyone walks in, but they’re like ‘It’s so hot, I can’t take it outside.’ It’s kind of a buy-what-you-can-eat during summer.”
In addition to traditional bon bons, the store also sells peanut butter bon bons for dogs and floppy discs, cassette tapes and records made from chocolate. Nash said the records in particular were inspired by one of their Detroit locations.
“We did some of these (records) because our Detroit store in Midtown is right next to Third Man Records,” Nash said. “We made a bunch of customs for them.”
The name Bon Bon Bon literally translates to “good goodies.” Clark said she settled on bon bons as a product and as the company name because it allowed for creativity in her chocolate-making.
“I like the way that it doesn’t commit to any one language or interpretation,” Clark said. “I’ve always loved the word ‘bon bon’ because there’s no agreed upon international definition of a bon bon. There are very different ideas of what it is from hard candy to ice cream depending on where you are … I like that bon bons don’t have rules. It lets you get away with anything you want.”
Nash said she loves working with chocolate and enjoys the experience of working with Bon Bon Bon in the Arcade even more.
“Bon Bon Bon is probably the best company I’ve ever worked for,” Nash said. “In terms of day-to-day stuff, it’s really fun. Christmas and Valentine’s Day you can be rushed off your feet all day, but it’s so much fun helping bring joy and excitement to people.”
Summer Managing News Editor Madison Hammond can be reached at madihamm@umich.edu.