So I was waiting for my passport photos to be developed at Walgreen’s yesterday. While kicking it at the magazine rack (does Oprah have an insatiable ego or what?) I was trying to swallow paying out 10 bones for a copy of the Official U.S. Playstation magazine and another $5 for a copy of Men’s Health (hey, another issue on washboard abs! What a shocker!) when I noticed three boxes of high end chocolate bars at my eye level (which is saying something about what the store manager thought about these offerings since I am 6′ 7″ tall).

Love the Lindt chocolate, forgot the other brand, and spied a box of the new Cacao Reserve chocolate bars by Hershey. My first reaction was why would Hershey put their mass market brand onto the packaging of a high end candy bar? But the real eye popper was the price tag – $2.79 retail for a candy bar.

The big bars are 3.53 oz which equals 100 grams and I have to admit that the milk chocolate bar I tried was smooth, creamy, sweet and basically chocolaty goodness. The USP for the snack is that it is comprised of 35% Cacao. One of the reasons for slow sales just might be that most people don’t know why they should care that a chocolate bar is made up of 35% Cacao (Cacao is a tropical tree from whence the beans from which chocolate are made don’t you know). I liked everything about the packaging except for the Hershey’s brand reference (Hello, ad agency? Yes, we have empty scrotums and thus feel the need to launch this premium food product while leaning on our mass market heritage).

This is like lipstick on a pig in reverse. Didn’t the C-suite at Hershey’s read in the trades of Walmart’s inability to sell premium branded products? Hellooooooo? I think your severance packages are calling people.

Maybe the thinking was that chocoholics know what Cacao is and that they are willing to pay extra for it but I kinda doubt it.