Charlottesville chocolate shop readying for Valentine’s Day

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - An award-winning chocolate shop in Charlottesville is understandably getting ready for Valentine’s Day.

“It’s always a last-minute holiday,” Tim Gearhart, owner of Gearharts Fine Chocolates, said. “We’ve done this 20-some years now, so we try to really, really anticipate those numbers ahead of time.”

Gearhart says he works three steps ahead, buying raw chocolate months prior for the big day.

“You don’t want to get caught with some kind of supply chain that’s going to put us at a standstill,” he said. “We’ve had years where we’ve had snow storms that have really impacted customer traffic, as well as shipping. FedEx, UPS can always be affected by that. So, we’re always trying to keep an eye one eye on that, as well as production.”

Gearhart stocks up, plans, and tries to keep his prices level.

“We generally walk very carefully on increasing pricing,” he said. “We try to stay competitive, but also remember our market and who our customers are.”

Gearhart says his shop is looking at roughly a 10% increase in production over 2022, which means around 12,000 chocolates per day.

His hard-working staff and supportive customers have him ready to go.

“People automatically put chocolate and Valentine’s Day together, which is great,” Gearhart said.

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