The scene is cut in a way that you don't know for sure they aren't paying him. They're probably pretty loyal, long-time customers given the way they all run right there after school, so he can take it on the honors system that they'll pay for what they're taking. (And he's probably able to keep track of it pretty well on his own given he knows their names and preferred candies by heart.)

As for the candy he throws aimlessly into the crowd, I'm sure he can afford to blow some pennies' worth of money on customer retention by literally throwing candy at them.

The Candy Man can cause he mixes it with savvy business practices and loss leaders, and makes the world taste goooood!

Rich people get things for free or as gifts all the time. Meanwhile us peasants have to pay.

I suspect the rich kids had a line of credit where he’d just send the parents a bill at the end of the month. My understanding is many grocers used to operate that way, especially before credit cards.

Que molestable

He clocks a kid with the vertical swinging counter door in the movie too. Pretty sure he gets a kickback from the local dentist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Lvn5H0kHw&t=20

What even is this? Did they racebend the Candyman?

It’s from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Yep. My aunt got in trouble for exactly this when she was a child. Abused the grocery line of credit all summer getting unnecessary candy for herself and her siblings.

I always assumed they paid a monthly subscription.

On Epstein’s island

it's a demonstration of classism in england. The rich kids get things for free, the poor have to pay.

Children's entertainment, not horror.

because being rich is good and should be rewarded and being poor is bad and should be punished.

The shop keeper is just prejudiced. Charlie's four grandparents are in a long-term polycule together. Charlie is the result of an insane two-generation long plan to get all members of the polycule to have a single genetic child together. The polycule has been completely open to the whole town about this plan, and everyone knows it.

The shopkeeper isn't prejudiced against the poor. He just has sexual hangups. And he's projecting his bigotry onto an innocent young child that had no choice but to be part of this whole situation.

Chocolate factory Candyman not Cabrini Green Candyman

Prosperity gospel in one sentence

Drug dealer, Charlie doesn't have any money.

Help those who help themselves. That plus it was prolly no secret in the town the disability fraud the grandfather was pulling.

The difference in building a loyal customer base vs expelling unwanted low lifes

Excepted return of investment

PR vs hand outs

CAPITALISM!

This would imply the polycule either groomed their children into predetermined relationship to have Charlie. Or their kids got into a semi-incestous second generation poly relationship which resulted in Charlie.

Either way there's some odd moral implications....

Man, that shit is a one-way ticket to the heater. Basically, “I reject JC/I embrace Mammonmaterialism” and it’s not going to pay out after their body mortgage comes due.

I must have only read the books! This guy looks creepy AF.

Either way there’s some odd moral implications…

Aka, it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

A lot of it is mangled with new-age-ism

The shopkeeper is partly to blame. Where I'm from, nowadays, there are laws about age of purchase. 7 and older you can buy small stuff that are reasonable for a child to be buying with their pocket money (vendors' common sense is needed here). 14 and older they can fully buy stuff on their own (except for age restricted items obvs).

This guy and uncle joe are two peas in a pod...