My Great, Great Grandmother on my Dad's paternal side had a sweet shop. I believe it was in Rhye, North Wales. As part of he trade she wore a conical black hat, similar to the popular depiction of a pointed Witches hat, but flat at the top. You can see an image of this in the 1948 film "How Green Was My Valley".
These hats, the pointed ones, had been worn for centuries by women who sold ale in busy market places so they could be seen more easily. They were known as "alewives." They brewed their ale in large black cauldrons and kept a broom, made of sticks, outside the door of their shops. It was, for reasons unknown to me, a sign of their trade. The black cats were kept to help ward off the mice who ate the grain meant for the ale.
As the ale business became more centralized in the 1600's, the larger companies, owned by men, tried to run off their independent, smaller competitors by spreading rumors of witchcraft. At the time sorcery, or witchcraft, was punishable by banishment and even death. Many of these women, particularly in Wales, went into the sweets business. The tools of the trade were similar. The black cauldron now held sugar and water for making rock candy, which made the black cat still indispensable for warding off the mice.
By the late 19th century the look of the Aleswife and Sweet Seller had been altered for good. Thanks to novels and then film, the history of their trade had been completely co-opted.
