Rocket Fizz Reopens in Santa Barbara After it was Swamped by January Rain

Even without a series of big winter storms this year, one was damaging enough to the Rocket Fizz soda pop and candy shop on State Street in Santa Barbara to shut it down for a month. After repairs it has now reopened.

Manager Marissa Cosio says in early January when a powerful storm hit downtown while the store was closed, an alarm went off and she came down to meet police. It was a motion sensor that was set off when a light fixture full of water blew off the ceiling.

Eventually it was determined to be linked to a clogged drain up above and an intense amount of rain.

Water was all over the wood floor and two carts of products were drenched.

Another area near a window display was flowing with each passing rain cloud.

“You can just see the water come straight down and you can see it pouring like a water fall,” said Cosio.

The next four weeks the store staff, and a special crew, repaired and rebuilt what was destroyed.

Thousands of items had to be moved and reordered, while the rebuilding took place.

The door is now wide open, thousands of items are back on display and the floor is dry.

The regular customers certainly missed the store which features unique and hard to get soda beverages, old fashioned candy and humorous novelties.

“We had a lot of customers put notes under our door,” said Cosio. “We know the love of Santa Barbara we were glad to open within that month and not longer.”

Apparently there are many sweet tooths out there. “Our first day open, we were jammed packed. We have a lot of the locals from the businesses that come in on their lunch and they were so happy that we were open. A lot of people come in for our taffy so when we opened they were excited to be able to fill up their bag again.”

Rocket Fizz opened at the 1021 State Street location in October of 2014. The chain has also been featured on the CBS show “Undercover Boss.”

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