The Goo Goo Cluster: Nashville's "Official" Candy?

Here's a little secret. Most smartphone deals aren't that exciting. To be honest, they're barely worth mentioning. But then there's AT&T and their best deals. Those are quite exciting. They're the kind of deals that are really worth talking about. Like their deal on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. With this deal, you can trade in your eligible smartphone, any year, any condition, for a new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. It's so good, in fact, it will have you shouting from the rooftops. So get yourself down to street level and learn how to snag the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 on AT&T.

And maybe grab a ladder on the way home. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Requires trade-in of Galaxy S Note or Z Series smartphone. Limited time offer. 256GB for $0. Additional fees, terms and restrictions apply. See att.com slash Samsung or visit an AT&T store for details. You make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV, streaming players and smart lights.

Head to Roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm. Hey, gorgeous. It's Paris Hilton. Get the party started with my new album, Infinite Icon, out now and stream the new single, Bad B**** Academy. I wanted this album to be an escape to take people to a happy place where they can heal and party in equal measure. And most of all, be your own unapologetic icon.

Listen on iHeartRadio and visit infiniteicon.com to order the album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. Tired of boring lunches? Picture this. You're at Chipotle ordering the same old burrito bowl.

But wait, there's more excitement in store than just guac. Introducing Drop, the ultimate rewards app. Just link your card, dine at your favorite restaurants and you'll learn points to get free gift cards from tons of brands. It's like getting paid to eat.

Hungry for savings? Download the Drop app now and use code DROP44 to kickstart your rewards journey with $5 in points. Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Zumo to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy.

Or play iHeart Country or Hip Hop Beats. Your choice, all for free. Stream easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle.

This September, have movie night with the blockbuster hit Godzilla and Resident Evil starring Mila Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez. Streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard.

Zumo is easy. And we continue with our American stories. And up next, we hear from Lori Spradley, the owner of the company, the Goo Goo Cluster. You may have heard of this candy bar that was created back in 1912.

But if not, here's Lori to share a little bit of the history of the Goo Goo and where they are today. So Standard Candy Company was started in downtown Nashville in 1901. And they were making hard candies, caramels, kind of single ingredient confections. And in 1912, the founder, Howell Campbell and his right-hand man Porter were in the kitchen kind of playing around and they invented the Goo Goo Cluster. And it was the first time anyone combined multiple ingredients into a single finished product. So it was made of caramel, milk chocolate, peanuts and a marshmallow nougat. And at first it didn't have a name.

And Howell was selling them on a streetcar in downtown Nashville. And story goes that a teacher was on the train and asked him what he was going to call this new confection. And he was like, I have no idea. And the conversation shifted to his newborn son. They started asking what he was up to. And they said, well, he just started talking. He's saying words like Goo Goo Gaga. And they said, that's what you should call it. A Goo Goo.

They're so good. People will ask for them from birth. And now we're stuck with the silly name. So my grandfather had been in the confection industry and made wedding cakes and owned a bakery. And my dad out of business school discovered Standard Candy. It was on the verge of bankruptcy.

And he called his dad and was like, I think we can save this. And so they bought it in 82. And so I'm the third generation to be involved in the business.

And it's it's been a wild ride. When they purchased the company, it was only the original Goo Goo. And so they introduced the pecan variety, which at that time was called the Supreme. And it just replaced the peanuts with pecans. And that was in the 80s. And then in 90, early 90s, they introduced the peanut butter variety, which is a peanut butter center with peanuts and milk chocolate.

And that's most of our favorite. I never thought I would work for the company. After college, I moved to New York City. I worked in sales, kind of did my thing for about six years and was just looking for something new.

And at the same time, Goo Goo was going through some restructuring and changes. And I was kind of like, I think I can put my mark on this. I'm qualified.

And I think, you know, we can have a lot of fun with this. So I did intern when I was 15 years old and couldn't drive to a job. I would go to work with my dad that summer. And they had a jar out front of all three flavors. And I probably had a Goo Goo every day. I called it a lunch. I was like, I was like, it's a peanut butter version. It's got some protein.

It'll it counts. I honestly usually don't even have them at my house. Growing up, everyone was like, you have to have you. You're the Goo Goo house.

You have to have them. And we just don't. I don't think anyone I guess maybe we've lost our sweet tooth, but we did give them out at Halloween when we lived on a really popular trick or treating street growing up. And everyone knew we gave out full size Goo Goo clusters. So we were extra popular on Halloween. I think it was in first grade.

So I don't know what age I was turning, maybe six or seven. And I took my, for my birthday party, I took my class to the factory and we all wore hair nets and got to see the entire process. And my friends still talk about it to this day. And I'm so glad they do remember it because now with food regulations, I can barely get into the factory. So I'm glad we all got to experience that.

And I guess, you know, pretty good for a first grader. So in 2014, we opened up a retail store in downtown Nashville, and that was, it's really become like our test kitchen. We're able to hand make any sort of confections we desire.

We get to kind of be our own Howell Campbell and make our own take on a Goo Goo cluster. So we started out making, having with our pastry chef, making his own creations and putting all sorts of wonderful goodies together into a finished product. And we started, I guess, around the same time, partnering with local chefs and what we call our summer chef series. And so every summer we partner with six or so chefs in the community who get to create their own Goo Goo. We have a ton of fun with it because we all get to try all these new combinations. Outside of the summer chef series, we've also started partnering with other local businesses, one of them being a barbecuity, and they were celebrating a big anniversary. So they asked us to create a Goo Goo for them, and it actually uses barbecue sauce. So it's a little sweet. It's a little spicy, a little funky and fun. And that's been a big hit.

The Glen Campbell Museum created their own, and we even will create custom candies for corporate events or parties. There definitely are some big Goo Goo fans out there. We've got a huge fan out of Canada.

And so he's, he's big on Twitter and we kind of have fun with him. He's been to visit a couple of times and been into our store, but most of the stories are just real nostalgic. A lot of people remember eating them with their grandparents or parents. One of our employees, Beth Sachon, she remembers sharing one with her mom at the checkout aisle and the grocery.

There are just some really sweet memories and stories, and everyone's always wanting to share them with us, which we love. I think a fun thing about the brand is that it's really evolved over the years, but it stayed true to exactly what the original ingredients were. So back when it was first created, they were sold in a glass candy jar with no wrapper. And then that evolved to putting it in a little paper sleeve at the candy counter. And then it was wrapped in foil, similar to a peppermint patty.

And now, and then it went to a sealed wrapper, kind of like it is today, but a different, different imaging. It's really fun to be a part of a history. We still have a presence in downtown Nashville, right where the original one was first created.

It's truly a stone's throw from the old factory. Yeah, I'd say our biggest challenge is trying to find, trying to transition our customer base from the older generation who remembers eating them as a kid to younger generations and making it a little more young, fun, playful. And so that's what we're trying to tackle. That's what we want our store to be like. We want everyone to feel like a kid. It's also one of the few places downtown where kids are going to have fun. You know, we're not one of the honkytonks or a museum.

We're, we're just a playful environment where you can feel like a kid again. And so it's been really fun to have that store to tell our real history and also get immediate customer feedback. And if you can't visit us in our downtown store in Nashville, we actually, you can design your own candy bar on our website.

So goodview.com. You can create your own confection. You can choose your chocolate.

You choose your, any of your mix-ins. And we've got some weird things like potato chips and fruity pebbles and kids definitely go a little, a little crazy with their confections. They are throwing in all sorts of stuff that I personally don't think goes well together, but I'm sure with a ton of sugar, they're, they're happy. We'll make it in our kitchen and ship it to you. We rolled that out during the pandemic.

And it's been really fun to see people who are not able to visit Nashville still be able to participate. Again, a great job and a team effort by Madison faith and Robbie on the piece, a special thanks to Laura Spradley, owner of Google cluster, a third generation family business, trying to stay relevant in current times and fun and meaningful to families lives and to design your own Google cluster and have it sent to you. You can go to the website, goo goo.com. That's goo goo.com.

The story of the Google cluster, a Southern tradition, and many people around the country know it too here on our American stories. Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home. Feel more like your own make your dorm, the place to be with Roku TV, or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like I heart radio stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV streaming players and smart lights.

Head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm. Hey, gorgeous. It's Paris Hilton. Get the party started with my new album infinite icon out now and stream the new single bad academy. I wanted this album to be an escape to take people to a happy place where they can heal and party in equal measure. And most of all, be your own unapologetic icon.

Listen on I heart radio and visit infinite icon.com to order the album sponsored by 1111 media. You know that feeling when you walk into your home, take a deep breath and feel new. Well, that's what it's like to use Clorox and Teva because Clorox and Teva smells like coconut cleans like Clorox and feels like energy. It'll elevate any cleaning routine to not just clean but also make every room smell like a tropical coconut getaway. Discover how Clorox and Teva's powerful clean and refreshing sense can transform your space.

Get yours and coconut or other fabulous sense at a nearby retail store. Deciding on what to listen to is hard using zoom out of stream music from I heart 90s radio is easy or play I heart country or hip hop beats your choice all for free stream easy with zoom Oh play get live and on demand entertainment with no logins no signups no accounts no hassle. This September have movie night with the blockbuster hit Godzilla and Resident Evil starring Mila Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez streaming free on zoom Oh play go to play.zumo.com Now, life is hard.

Zumo is easy. Just got my period. Do you have an extra tampon?

Sure. See, I have a couple different brands. They should all only have a little bit of heavy metals in them.

Yep. In a recent study, metals were found in the top 17 tampon brands want to know which one wasn't on the list Lola using only clean organic natural ingredients that are free from toxins and dyes. All products are gynecologist approved like it should be natural ingredients means less itchiness and discomfort and with their subscription service you can sign up and never even think about running out of tampons again. Plus Lola is focused on women's overall health and safety providing not only period care products but sexual wellness and vaginal care products as well. That's because Lola was actually founded by women so they know what women want and need. It's time for Lola buy women for all get 25% off with code Lola VIP and see all that Lola has to offer at MyLola.com.