A few months ago in my management accounting class we had a group project to start a (hypothetical) business. I had suggested a premium chocolate business. I figured with people dieting they might opt for higher quality if they had to cut back on quanity. I also figured people tended to use price as a heuristic for judging quality — it's expensive so it's got to be good stuff — so our business could get away with a huge markup. We were going to control the provess from begnning to end. Top notch. No corners cut. But then we decided the whole thing was getting too complicated so we decided to make a cigars for rich guys instead.
Apparently two former accountants had a similar idea, except they avoided all the complications by, um, cutting corners. But they got the pricing right: they charge up to $2,080 per pound. The problem is when you charge that much chocolate fanatics get curious. It is a long but fascinating read. It's like Sherlock Holmes, but with yummy chocolate. As an added bonus for the patient reader there are links at the end to find out how to get your $2,080 pound of chocolate for like $20. The downside is after reading it you'll crave the taste of chocolate and wander off to find a Hershey bar, which is where I'm going now.