Thanks to the giant lollipop, candy-colored signs, and bubble machine, you'll be able find Will Be’s Corner when you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.  

Roxborough’s new candy store opened across the street from the C & C Creamery last spring at 5462 Ridge Avenue. “The children love the bubbles,” says owner Williesha Robinson-Bethel. “They come out, they play with the bubbles.” 

Will Be’s Corner carries candy classics like Dum Dums, Laffy Taffy, and Sugar Babies. But it stocks more unusual sweet stuff too. “We specialize in a lot of the trending candies,” Robinson-Bethel says. “The children come in and request candy from Tik-Tok and YouTube challenges, so we have a lot of ‘up and coming’ candy as well as old-school candy.”

“The children come in and request candy from Tik-Tok and YouTube challenges, so we have a lot of ‘up and coming’ candy as well as old-school candy.”

“They like to video themselves eating certain candies. We have a candy called the Lil’ Nitro.” This is labeled the world’s hottest gummy bear. Then there’s the Juicy Jelly challenge, which is basically about trying to eat a massive single glob of gelatin in one slurp without getting it all over the place. “There are a lot of solid candies that the children like to record themselves in different challenges,” she adds. “Slime Licker is really, really popular.” It’s similar to Juicy Jellies… except even more sour.

Will Be’s Corner also offers sugar-free candy and a range of custom items such as mugs, hats, and tee-shirts.  In the future, Robinson-Bethel plans to offer special party packages. For now, she says, there’s a lot of back-to-school shopping going on.

The store is an outgrowth of the Will Be Foundation, which encourages young men ages 12 through 18 to speak out against gun violence. The foundation was started by Robinson-Bethel after her son, William Bethel IV, became a victim of gun violence. Will was a scholar athlete, winning Philadelphia’s Boys Latin High School’s Excellence in Science Award while also excelling at football and boxing. He was shopping on South Street on April 2018 when he was shot in the lower back. He died two weeks after his sixteenth birthday.

The foundation runs a Back-to-School drive to collect school supplies and a contest and bike giveaway to encourage teenage boys to write essays about gun violence. At the last contest in pre-pandemic 2019, the foundation gave away 24 bikes.