A Sweet Stop at Baker’s Candies Between Omaha and Lincoln

A wall of candy invites a pleasantly difficult decision at Baker’s Candies: build a bag one piece at a time, or head straight for the chocolates. Along US Highway 6 between Omaha and Lincoln, this is a sizable stop built for people who do not mind taking their time with a sweet tooth.

Baker’s is much more than a counter with a few boxes of chocolates behind it. Candy, salty snacks, bottled drinks, local meats, pantry goods and giftable Nebraska foods fill a large, organized retail space. A quick roadside purchase is certainly possible, but the selection has a way of turning a short stop into a long browse.

The store makes easy room for different kinds of shoppers. Someone assembling a bag of old-fashioned treats can wander beside a traveler stocking up on jerky and chips, while another shopper considers jams, relishes or a pie for the trip home.

Baker’s signature meltaway chocolates sit at the center of the store’s identity. The name points to the appeal: these are chocolates selected for their soft, melting texture, available in a range of varieties rather than one standard assortment.

Customized meltaway assortments can be put together without an extra charge, which is useful when one person wants a familiar favorite and another wants to try several varieties. It also makes a box of chocolates feel more like a small collection than an off-the-shelf souvenir.

Selected Baker’s chocolates are available for sampling, giving shoppers a chance to compare before settling on a bag or box. Some chocolate options are also offered in sugar-free versions, a welcome detail for shoppers seeking a more limited selection without skipping the chocolate case entirely.

The mix-your-own candy wall brings a little freedom to the shopping. Instead of committing to a single package, you can assemble a bag around a few remembered favorites, add something unfamiliar, then make room for one more piece that catches your eye at the last minute.

A dedicated taffy area adds another layer to the hunt, with a taffy wall and barrels of saltwater taffy. It is a good place to slow down and look through flavors rather than treating taffy as an afterthought beside the checkout.

Retro candy has a strong presence here, including sweets many people will recognize from childhood and older brands or candy styles that are harder to spot in an ordinary grocery-store aisle. Current favorites share the shelves, so the store does not ask shoppers to choose between nostalgia and a more modern candy run.

Not everything comes coated in sugar. Chocolate-covered pretzels, nuts and chips bring a salty counterpoint to the softer, sweeter side of the store. Fudge, popcorn and cotton candy sold in buckets broaden the possibilities still further, particularly when a carful of people cannot agree on one snack.

One of the more cheerful stops inside is the chilled Kool-Aid tasting bar, where visitors can sample different flavors at no charge. It is a small ritual that fits the setting nicely: take a sip, look over the candy choices, then decide what belongs in the bag.

Kool-Aid has a genuine Nebraska connection. The drink was invented in Hastings, and Baker’s presents it as part of the state’s food story rather than simply another brightly colored beverage on the shelf.

The drink selection goes beyond Kool-Aid, with bottled sodas that include old-fashioned pop and glass-bottle options such as RC Cola. A cold bottle and a bag of salty snacks can make this stop just as useful for the next stretch of highway as it is for bringing home candy.

The snack shelves cover the practical basics well: trail mix, nuts, potato chips and pretzels are all in the mix. That matters on a drive between Omaha and Lincoln, when a serious candy shop can also solve the less glamorous question of what everyone will eat before the next stop.

Meat products have their own place in the lineup, including sausages, beef jerky and other locally sourced meats. The jerky selection comes in multiple flavors, and local beef products offer another distinctly Nebraska-minded alternative to the usual travel snacks.

There are retail-size purchases for a simple grab-and-go stop, along with some wholesale-size options for shoppers buying more generously. A bag that begins with a few chocolates can quickly become an assortment of treats for the office, family gathering or car ride.

A substantial portion of Baker’s is devoted to products made in Nebraska, drawing from local farms, food companies and meat producers. The result is a broader food-market browse built around the state, not just a chocolate shop with a small souvenir rack.

Pantry shelves include jams and jellies, spices, barbecue sauce, pickled vegetables, pickles and relishes. These are easy things to carry home and easy things to give, especially for someone who would rather receive a good jar of preserves or barbecue sauce than another trinket from the road.

Pies are also part of the expanded food selection. Alongside the candies and salty snacks, they help give the store the feel of a place where a traveler can collect provisions, a host can find something for a table, and a gift shopper can build a distinctly edible Nebraska package.

The presentation is clean and organized, which helps a store this large remain navigable. The fun is in moving from one category to the next without feeling as though the candy, bottled drinks, specialty foods and meat products have all been piled into one overwhelming aisle.

Music plays as shoppers browse, and decorative cutouts, including figures such as Warren Buffett, add a lightly playful note to the surroundings. The tone is not solemn confectionery; it is a place happy to let a giant candy run be a little goofy.

No reservation is needed to shop. With enough time, it is easy to spend an hour or more comparing meltaways, looking through retro candies, stopping at the Kool-Aid bar and making a final pass through the Nebraska-made food shelves before heading back to Highway 6.