Higher prices for boxes and wrapping is making the cost of chocolates go up just in time for Valentine's Day. | beerntsens.com
Higher prices for boxes and wrapping is making the cost of chocolates go up just in time for Valentine's Day. | beerntsens.com
The cost of romance is getting higher as a box of chocolates has gotten more expensive, but it's not the candy-making aspect that's driving up prices. It's the packaging.
Valentine’s Day, which typically accounts for $1.8 billion in spending on candy in the United States according to fortunly.com, is just around the corner. But be prepared for sticker shock.
"They probably went up a dollar, two dollars on the boxes,” Mark Beerntsen, owner of Beerntsen’s Candies, told Fox11. Beerntsen’s has two locations near Green Bay.
And the box is just part of the packaging. Beerntsen said the whole process adds more than you’d expect to the total cost.
“Like I said, the candy we've held the same prices we've had at the last year, $18.95 a pound,” Beerntsen said. “The other $9, $10 that's the cost of the box.”
Because of supply-chain and work-force issues that have pressured production and retail, chocolatiers are recommending that you buy items while they're available now, rather than risk finding them all sold out later.
If you can't find selection in traditional holiday packaging, or you don’t want to pay the premium for it, you can always buy individual chocolates at many stores.
The origins of Valentine’s Day go back further than the tradition of giving chocolate. The candy-giving tradition started in the 1840s or so, when candy maker Richard Cadbury saw an opportunity to bolster sales by packaging the chocolates in fancy boxes and playing on the love theme, history.com says.
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