What Would Willy Wonka Do?
By Erin in Food on Dec 16, 2004 3:08AM
Perhaps they should have thought twice before handing out all of that free candy.
Our good friends at the Chicago Tribune tell us that Fannie May Candies, the company that after declaring bankruptcy earlier this year and shutting down its operations for nine months, is facing a candy shortage.
The news is heart-wrenching enough to send Chicagoist running into the streets in a panic, shot gunning baking chocolates and rolling around in a vat of Hershey’s syrup until the crisis passes.
Chicagoist can’t blame Alpine Confections, Inc., Fannie May’s new parent company, for misjudging projections. Despite sales data and sundry of figures that told otherwise, demand for Pixies, mint Meltaways, and, Chicagoist’s favorite, Trinidads, has been immense. The Tribune reports that store shelves were pretty sparse by Thanksgiving.
And it’s not just your everyday chocoholic that’s been impacted by the shortage. The Trib article states that charities that rely on Fannie May candy for its fundraisers are SOL, being promised gift certificates redeemable for candy at a later date.
Fannie May, under its previous parent company, Archibald Candy Company, filed for Chapter 11 in January of this year, citing “A combination of factors [that] have posed financial challenges for Archibald Candy Corp. for a number of years.” Archibald shuttered the doors on the entire Fannie May Chicago operation.
Fast-forward to October and, as their advertising campaign so wittily announced, “Chocolate [was] back.” Along with the advertising campaign, Fannie May announced its return to Chicago with a free-candy giveaway in November – of which Chicagoist gladly and hungrily took advantage – and hopes for a new start.
They totally knew the way to our hearts was with a big box of chocolate.
Chicagoist, truth be told, is just as surprised with Pixie Shortage 2004 as Alpine purports to be, since the Fannie May closings left many with sour tastes in their mouths.
Kind of like when you bite into those funky, fruit-filled chocolates in the Colonial assortment box that you could have sworn was caramel, but wasn’t, and you have to spit it out without anyone noticing.
More important than the loss of chocolate was the loss of jobs – to the tune of 3,500 people out of work. To see this kind of rampant surge for the Fannie May wares is surprising based on that fact alone.
This just goes to show you that one should never underestimate the power of chocolate and its stronghold on its faithful minion. If you are one of the few left holding the bag, or the empty box, as it were, never fear: Chicagoist posits that in the tradition of manufacturers of popular holiday items everywhere, Fannie May will have a surplus of candy for you and yours to gobble up by Valentine’s Day.