No Trick-or-Treating at the Godiva Store

After work yesterday, I went for a haircut at a Supercuts across from South Shore Plaza. Upon leaving, Karin called me, warning that traffic on 93 North was quite awful. So I decided to duck into South Shore Plaza in search of some mylar balloons for Chris' birthday last night.

While that trip was unsuccessful (how could nobody in a mall sell mylar balloons?!), I discovered that lots of kids trick-or-treat at the mall. Who knew? It was fun seeing a ton of little ones being paraded around store to store, parents in tow, all trick-or-treating in an entirely safe environment. I thought it was a great idea.

Just before I left, I had to grab a couple chocolate bars for Joe, our football quarterback. He seems to require them for better play on Saturday mornings.

I went into Godiva, a small storefront filled with chocolate and no patrons. I walked up to the counter, asked about a few of their chocolate bars, and then realized that a some kids walked in behind me in search of trick-or-treating loot.

Me to store clerk: "Oh, you can help these guys first"

Kids to store clerk: "TRICK OR TREAT!"

Store clerk to kids: "Sorry guys, we're not participating in that this year."

(Huh?)

Me to store clerk: "You're not?"

Store clerk to me: "No, the mall sent something around to the stores that we should not be giving out candy this year."

Me to store clerk: "Really? All the other stores are doing it. And you're not? Aren't you a candy store??"

Yeah, no joke. Godiva chocolates - a candy store - was one of the few candy holdouts on Halloween, a day when everyone and their mother hands out free candy.

At first, I found it funny and ironic, but then I realized how idiotic and stupid the folks from Godiva were. Instead of being the store that handed out the best trick-or-treating candy in the mall - a great PR move with nominal costs - they instead became the fancy candy store that refused to give away candy to kids on Halloween.

When they had the opportunity to give candy to both the kids AND their parents - the ones with the wallets and pocketbooks who will soon be searching for holidays gifts - they created an entirely memorable yet unfavorable experience.

Boneheads.