Editing Hooper's Store (section)

==History==
[[Image:TV hoopers candy store.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Original proprietor Mr. Hooper ([[Will Lee]]) and his store in its earlier days as a candy shop/soda fountain/general store]]
The fictional store was said to be founded by Mr. Harold Hooper in 1951 as a [[general store]]. In canon, the food menu was extensive and suited to the different characters that lived on [[Sesame Street (fictional location)|Sesame Street]], a fictional [[Manhattan]] street. Along with traditional [[diner|American diner-type food]], the store sold a wide range of goods from dry goods to soap dishes and stranger goods such as empty cigar boxes (in ''[[Christmas Eve on Sesame Street]]'') and [[Bird food|birdseed]] [[milkshake]]s for [[Big Bird]].

In ''[[Street Gang|Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street]]'', Michael Davis notes that the store was one of the early core concepts that producer [[Jon Stone]] brought to the show:

{{blockquote|There would be an older proprietor of a neighborhood variety store, the type that had a soda fountain with pedestal stools. At that time in [[The Bronx|Bronx]] sociological history, the owner of such a business would likely have been male, Caucasian, and Jewish. Stone asked Rosen to build into the set what ultimately became Hooper's Store. "It gave us a wonderful location both for comedy and curriculum-driven bits," Stone said.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Michael |title=Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street |date=2009 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0143116639 |page=168}}</ref>}}

Over the course of the show, the store often acts as a gathering spot for the characters.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Manning |first1=Anita |title=And baby makes three on 'Sesame Street' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38901936/anita_manning_and_baby_makes_three_on/ |accessdate=12 November 2019 |work=The Daily Journal |agency=Gannett News Service |date=12 May 1989 |location=Vineland NJ |page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Walsh |first1=Michael |title=TV nest best: watch Big Bird laying an egg |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38902070/tv_nest_best_watch_big_bird_laying_an/ |accessdate=12 November 2019 |work=The Province |date=8 August 1985 |location=Vancouver BC |page=34}}</ref> In ''Sesame Street Unpaved'', David Borgenicht writes:

{{blockquote|Hooper's Store is what all good communities and neighborhoods require -- a gathering place. Hooper's Store is to ''Sesame Street'' what Cheers was to ''[[Cheers]]'', what the Pirate's Cove was to ''[[The Love Boat]]'', what Arnold's was to ''[[Happy Days]]'': a place where Muppets and humans alike could go to get whatever they needed, whether that be a Figgy Fizz soda or a chocolate [[egg cream]] (Hooper's specialty).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Borgenicht |first1=David |title=Sesame Street Unpaved: Scripts, Stories, Secrets and Songs |date=1998 |publisher=Hyperion Books |isbn=978-0786864607 |page=124}}</ref>}}