Charles Chocolates now at Westfield SF Shopping Centre, closing Emeryville store end of day 2/14/10

[hhc]

Charles Chocolates has a new flagship shop at SF Centre, 2nd floor, Nordstrom side. He's also closing the Emeryville kitchen & store end of Valentine's Day 2/14/10. He's moving the production facility to SF and might open after 6 month.

[lmnopm]

R.I.P.

[Windy]

over what?

[shanghaikid]

Charles Chocolate announced on facebook "...we had to close our doors".

[Ruth Lafler]

Just their retail, or their entire operation?

[shanghaikid]

the whole thing.
grub street: "charles chocolate goes under".

[Robert Lauriston]

“Being a small company, we bet the ranch on this project. It was all or nothing, and it turned out to be nothing.”

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/...

[Ruth Lafler]

As someone who was underwelmed by his product, it's interesting to note that his business sense wasn't any better.

[Malcolm Ruthven]

I also was underwhelmed by his product, first when trying them purchased at various places and finally at visit to his store in Emeryville; they were no better there.

[singleguychef]

The whole closing seems shocking. I liked his chocolates and he seems to have built up a brand name, but I don't understand how not having the financing for a big factory/retail shop means that you can't still keep a small store open? To go to zero seems puzzling to me and makes me think there's something more to the closing than just the big dreams falling through. Maybe he invested too much into the factory plans and like any construction it just ballooned? Too bad though, because he is a nice guy.

[Robert Lauriston]

How can you keep a retail shop open if you have no place to make your product?

[Ruth Lafler]

Yes, I assumed from what he said that when the deal collapsed they lost the funding needed to run the factory. What I don't understand is Charles's rather cavalier attitude toward all the people who lost their jobs because his grandiose scheme didn't work out. ("The hardest — but also most heartening — part is reading all this incredible stuff on our Facebook page" -- you mean the hardest part wasn't laying off your employees? "Getting to feed people is a thrill,” he says. “It’s hard to imagine not being part of that, so I’m not going to" -- how nice for you, Charles!)

[Robert Lauriston]

Who knows what else he told Paolo, that might be a few snippets from a long conversation.

What grandiose scheme? Moving to Westfield? Sounded more like downsizing. Since he was between kitchens he might have been down to almost no employees already.

[singleguychef]

Where was he making his product that he was selling in his temporary space the last few months while he was making plans for the bigger spot? He had a nice store with retail help that were selling his product at the Westfield, but near the Dome there was the cardboard covered area that was much bigger and that was supposedly the grandiose scheme.

[Windy]

My understanding was the new space was going to actually be the factory, like the walk-by demo kitchen they had in Emeryville. Not sure if that's correct.

I never understood why they were moving to the city in the first place, since most of their business was always through distribution or private label (caramel apples for Williams-Sonoma). Or it may have just gotten too hard to compete against Hershey (Dagoba, Scharffenberger, etc.) or at the high end (against Recchuiti and the like).

Their best products were in the middle: $6-7 bars, $11 chocolate almonds, the salty cashew bar.