Mega Plume

This holiday season, we have been very busy making gift items in the CARSON wrappedhersheys.com workshop.  We've been filling tin after tin full of delicious Hershey's candy.  I felt like one of Santa's Elves, working as fast as I could while listening to every Christmas song known to man.

As I opened one bag of Hershey's Kisses, I noticed one Kiss that looked a little different from the rest.  It had the longest plume I've ever seen.  I couldn't resist setting that one aside because it was so unique.  The plume measured an amazing 12 inches.  Since then, I've found others with longer plumes than usual, but none compare to this special Kiss.

To honor this great find, it has been included as a decoration on my desktop Christmas tree.  The tree has been trimmed with everyday office supplies such as Post-it Flags, paper clip garland and even topped with a Post-it Note star cutout.  The Kiss, however, is definitely the best decoration.

Runners Need Chocolate Too

Each month, CARSON wrappedhersheys.com receives requests for donations. But this month I received one from someone who used to work for Scott and I. While we were both working, one summer Lisa took care of our girls. She left quite an impression on both of them. Ellis became a vegetarian and Chase shared Lisa’s enthusiasm for fashion. After graduating from college she moved to New York and today we learned she is training to run in the NYC Half Marathon. WOW! She is participating as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. Go Lisa!  
 
You can donate too…visit Lisa’s page.

The Buehler Clan

Keeping the tradition going.  On September 22, 2009 my cousin Dee and her husband Mark welcomed their second son Maxwell James Buehler.  What better way to announce the birth of their son than with chocolate birth announcements.  Two years ago when their son Sammy was born we made bars to announce his birth.  This time around I decided to design a bar specifically towards their family.

The Buehler clan consists of Dee (mom), Mark (dad), Sammy (2 year old), Max (newborn), Marley (great dane), Annie and Ginger (which are both yellow labs).  One night I was doodling in my sketchbook and started drawing out their family.  Since Sammy's bear is always by his side, I had to add it in.  I even included the three dogs, which in my opinion are definitely part of the family.  I ended up shipping a handful of bars to the Buehler's for them to pass out to family and friends.

5lbs, 10lbs, 15lbs of Chocolate

For the last several years, CARSON wrappedhersheys.com has strategically focused on creating the best wrapper designs for our candy bar business. We built many categories and even started selling our wrappers in Español but in early October we started getting calls about Holiday and Christmas gifts. We had carried smaller items for several years but in 2009 we stretched ourselves further.  

Country Sweet Snowman holds 15 pounds of chocolate. That's about 1000 pieces of candy. We stuff it with Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, Special Dark and Milk Chocolate Hershey's bars. We add everyone's peanut butter favorite: Reeses Cups and finish it off with scrumptious Kisses. It's so heavy after we fill it with chocolate that a lot of us can't lift it.  If that's too much, don't worry, we have 2 - ten pound options, Reindeer Snuggle and Winter Wonder. Each of these contain approximately 700 chocolates. However, my personal favorite is the Holiday Checkers. It's tiny. It ONLY holds 5 pounds of chocolate!  With almost 350 pieces, you could spend the entire year trying to get to the bottom.  Happy Holidays from everyone at CARSON.

Oh Baby!

Your new grandchild has just arrived and you're about to burst with joy. You've done your shopping and preparations, you've talked it to pieces with your friends. But you've still to make one of the most important decisions in the relationship between you and your grandchild: your name.  Will you be Grandma, Papaw, Dama or Gramps? A wonderful website called grandparents.com has an awesome article with loads of fun insight on this possibly perplexing conundrum. You'll need to have this issue all ironed out when you order your birth announcements for your grandchild, designed especially for new grandparents and personalized with your declared title from this day forward. A newborn is often a baby brother or sister, a lifetime companion and cohort--doubtless a source of annoyance--but in the end someone slightly better and truer than a best friend.  If this isn’t cause to celebrate, we can’t think of what else could be.  Therefore, you guessed it, we offer a new line of chocolate birth announcements so new big brothers and sisters can have their own forum from which to express their delight over this profound life-enriching event. No matter what the occasion, CARSON wrappedhersheys.com can always find ways to make chocolate an integral part of this crazy thing we call life.

Memorable December Occasions

We wish you a merry anniversary, we wish you a merry anniversary...

Twinkies + 1

One Friday morning as I sat down at my desk and looked over at Pam, I realized we were wearing the exact same outfit.  For some people, this could be quite embarrassing, but in the marketing department at CARSON wrappedhersheys.com, we celebrate it.  We refer to this as being “twinkies.”  I was introduced to this term about two years ago when I thought I was being called a snack food.  As it turns out, it’s just a term that some Northern Ohioans use when you are dressed like someone else.

Now this particular day was something special.  Not only were Pam and I twinkies, but hours later we realized that Carola had also channeled us when choosing her outfit for the day.  Could it be that we spend too much time together?  I prefer to believe that we all just have good taste.

Get a Le Whif of this!

As a follower of all things chocolate, this new concept certainly caught my attention... Inhaling chocolate!
 
When I read about this new product, I envisioned it as being similar to inhaling hot cocoa mix or something like that, and as soon as I get my hands on it, I will let you know.  If it doesn't taste good, you could always use it as an air freshener.
 
I wish you could smell our warehouse at CARSON wrappedhersheys.com!  When the Hershey's chocolate bars are in full motion throughout, it is a smell to behold. My personal favorite is opening the sealed bags of kisses and miniatures we receive and getting a enjoying the sweet smell of the nations best chocolate.

Memorable November Occasions

Our November Birthdays are wrapped up and ready to go!

  

Expanding our Hershey's Horizons

It was with some amazement that we learned of the closing of Hershey's Gifts catalog business and website this summer.  Along with several other major catalog businesses, The Hershey Company decided to focus more on their core business of selling directly to retail chains versus direct to consumers.

It seems like this decision was probably made long before the economic crisis of 2009, and could be attributed more to a simple strategy shift.  Over the past several years, The Hershey Company has been acquiring brands such as specialty chocolate maker, Scharffen Berger and Hawaiian nut company Mauna Loa which have taken it further away from some of its core business.
 
The good news for Carson customers is that the shift has given us an opportunity to grow our own Hershey's Gifts business.  Utilizing our 16,000 sq. ft. facility and purchasing power, we have partnered with some of the best packaging businesses in the U.S. in order to grow and expand our own gift products.  While we already have created a very strong personalized gift business, we now also offer non personalized gift items filled with the freshest Hershey's chocolate you can buy anywhere, because we get ours directly from Hershey, PA.
 
So while The Hershey Company continues to focus on making the World's Best Chocolate, there is even more opportunity for Carson to bring that great chocolate to you either personalized or non personalized in our new and exciting gift packaging for almost every occasion.