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Sanders Confectionery is a company formed in Detroit in 1875, best known to those in the midwestern United States for its assortment of ice cream, toppings, bumpy cakes and candies. The Sanders brand is currently owned by the Morley Candy Company. The company was founded by German-born Frederick Sanders Schmidt on June 17, 1875, when he opened a candy store on Woodward Avenue at Gratiot in downtown Detroit. Schmidt, who went by his middle name, had originally opened his first shop in Chicago but relocated to Detroit after his store was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871. Ice cream was soon added to the menu, then baked goods and sweet cream sodas. One popular story states that on one hot summer day, the store was packed with thirsty customers, and Sanders noticed that the sweet cream used for the sodas had gone sour. So he quickly substituted ice cream, and it became the talk of the town. Sanders is among those who claim to have invented the ice cream soda. Business became so brisk that the store expanded and Sanders hired more employees.