High costs impacting small business

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The economy affects everyone, especially our small businesses, and some of the first things to see increase are more luxury items like chocolate.

This year, the price of chocolate is going up, in some cases drastically, and, unfortunately, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Mom and pop shops around the country like Mary Jane’s Chocolates here in Bowling Green are known to eat cost here and there to protect their customers, and this holiday, they might have to do a bit of that.

Gary Meszaros, co-owner of Mary Jane’s Chocolates, says, “Yeah, quite a bit. My wife was just telling me about this the other day that she tried to place some orders, and they warned her. They were so worried about telling the customers like us, you know, how high went up, but it went up, you know, close to 50%. And some of the raw ingredients. ”

Meszaros said as a business owner, price hikes make he and his wife a bit nervous, just like any other small business operation.

He said you don’t want to price yourself out of the market – you also don’t want to lose any customers.

Meszaros told us he’s pretty confident they’ve got everything covered to get through Valentine’s Day but are a little skeptical about strawberry prices this weekend.