chocolate future?

I like chocolate but, so far, I've not run into any "must have" chocolate item I can't find locally. I wouldn't order anything for myself that I haven't already tasted and enjoyed nor would I buy the same for another unless I knew it was a favorite and I couldn't find it locally. I've found that online purchases of specialty foods are extremely expensive as well. As for supermarkets, I don't buy chocolate confections there at all. I might buy cocoa and baking products...ok, M & Ms ...but not boxed candies.

Ordinary chocolate for day to day consumption is easily purchased at the drug store or grocery store so I would not consider mail order for that. Special treats for special occasions - yes, I've both given and received fancy mail order chocolates. So the answer to one of your questions - is there a future for online chocolate sales? Certainly. Are there potential problems? Yes. Not to mention the fact that there is already some strong competition in place.

Some of the best toffee I've ever had comes from Enstroms in Colorado. I've received it as a gift, but never ordered. They are awfully proud of their product, as they say around here (=very expensive).

I have ordered chocolate covered dried cherries (something I have not found around here) from a place in Michigan. They were good but not worth spending a lot of money on. Harry and David have some fairly good chocolate truffles, but I'm not sure they are worth the price premium. And so on.

Unfortunately there are some limitations depending on where you live. About 4-6 months out of the year it would be a bad idea for me to order ANYTHING chocolate unless it came well cooled and insulated. That raises the cost. That's one of the down sides of living in a mostly warm climate. June-August are the only reliably hot months, but it can be pretty warm any time from April to September and I would NOT want to spend serious dollars on a frivolous treat only to end up with a chocolate puddle.

There might be for women, but not for men. We buy chocolate on special occasions which means we wait for the last available day and then rush around looking for some. We'd never think far enough ahead to order it. Women however will always be willing to keep a supply of chocolate on hand and might go for regular mail orders of it.

Some stand-alone well known chocolate stores will ship directly.

In addition, there are established on-line vendors that include quality chocolate products in their inventories.

Personally, I would trust either. However I would be hesitant to trust others.

Chocolate contains fat and fat goes rancid over time. Unfamiliar sites could not be trusted to ship fresh products, so those sweets could be decidedly off-flavor. Chocolate also melts, so the real pros know how to protect theirs during shipping.

IMO, "gourmet" chocolate can depend on personal taste.

There has been some brands of boxed chocolates on the market for decades, and can be bought in supermarkets and drug stores. If they were not appealing to a lot of people, they would not have been for sale for so long.

Angeline