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Counting On A Sugar Rush

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By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Published: February 14, 2009

PORT RICHEY - The recession has left a bitter taste at times in the mouths of local small-business owners. Longtime west Pasco chocolatier Michelle Palisi, however, thinks 2009 will be sweeter.

She expects her store, Chocolates by Michelle, should get a big boost today from last-minute Valentine's Day shoppers stopping by her Gulf View Square mall location, near the Dillard's department store.

Hint: her signature item, chocolate-dipped strawberries, goes over big.

Palisi started her business on a shoestring budget in 1985 from the savings she realized from quitting smoking. The same determination she used to start the shop is serving her well in enduring the recession.

Palisi has no doubt the store will thrive to see its 10th anniversary at the mall and the 25th anniversary by 2010.

But it hasn't been easy.

The store employs up to six people right now. During the 2008 Christmas shopping season, she employed as many as 10 people.
Mall traffic seemed slower during the holidays in 2008, in her estimation. In previous years, she might expand her staff to 24 employees during the Christmas season.

She has cut expenses and stepped up networking efforts. She got to meet TV personality Martha Stewart at a recent book signing in Countryside and gave Stewart some samples. Palisi dreams of making a guest appearance on Stewart's nationally syndicated program.

The chocolate store catered products for two big Super Bowl parties Feb. 1, Palisi said.

Valentine's Day often inspires the romantic side of people searching for sweets for the sweet. Customized gifts include hiding a diamond ring inside a chocolate treat, she said. One customer even asked to hide a Rolex watch inside chocolate.

Chocolate is a "feel-good thing and it's not that expensive," Palisi said. In fact, chocolate often is a feel-good treat to comfort people during troubled times, she said.

Loyal customers keep returning to her store.

"I'm a destination. I bring customers here" to the mall, Palisi said. She has resisted opening other locations

"Keep the small business in business," Palisi said. "That's so important in this economy right now."

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