Hershey's to Open Store in Chicago

By Rachelle Bowden in Food on Jul 29, 2004 11:46AM

Chicagoist is a major, major chocolate fiend so we are trying not to squeal as we type this. Hershey's has announced plans to open a retail store in Chicago by June! This news comes almost two years after opening a retail store in Times Square. The Chicago store will be similar to the store in NYC except it will be even bigger.

Thomas K. Hernquist, Hershey's chief marketing officer, says that the stores are more about branding and building an "emotional connectivity" with consumers than about actually selling candy. Stinks. We want it to be about the candy!! Hernquist also says that Hershey's isn't concerned that a retail store will hurt candy sales at nearby stores that sell Hershey's products and that the retail store will sell a lot of "higher-ticket items, that don't compete with what's in the regular retail outlets." Hershey's schwag.. yawn!

Chicagoist is hoping that our store has some of the chocolate attractions that the NYC store has... like stuff you can eat, not SCHWAG! We're especially interested in the "gravitational chocolate machine" where you can create your own personal mix of candy and the ability to create our own personalized Giant Hershey's Kisses.

If you can't wait for the store to open in June to get your Hershey's fix, the Hershey's Kissmobile (yeh, we didn't know it existed either.. and yeh, we do think it's a crap ripoff of the Wienermobile) will be making its way through Chicago August 30 - September 12.