Chocolate Factory loses a cafe, gaining a bakery

Owner gratified by response, looking forward to changes

MOSES LAKE — Reports of the Great Northwest Chocolate Factory's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

The business, located at 1180 N. Stratford Road, is still in business for the most part. The chocolate's still there, and it's still the site for JC Penney merchandise.

But customers who wander in looking for one of the store's cafe's lunchtime sandwiches are going to be quite disappointed.

The cafe portion of the business was closed around Sept. 10.

"There's just not enough hours in the day," said Chocolate Factory owner Alberta Cannon. "I was trying to do the cafe, the chocolates and JC Penneys and the cafe has so many hours in it. There are so many more restaurants here now, and we just decided that we would be better off going another way."

Part of the decision came out of the fact that Cannon's son is going to Iraq imminently.

"I was thinking about that, and it's like, I don't want to be here from seven in the morning until seven at night," she said. "I want to enjoy some time while I can."

Cannon said that the disappointed reaction from loyal cafe customers has made her feel good, though.

"Everybody's come in like, 'Oh, we're so sorry it's closing,' so I don't feel like it was a failure," she said. "I feel like it was a success. Everybody loved our food and they're sorry to see it go, but sometimes to stay in business, you just have to keep making changes."

In the cafe's place, Cannon has leased the space to a bakery which is expected to begin setting up next week, although she's not sure what items will be carried or when it will open.

"I think it will go really well with what we have, because she's a real friendly, outgoing person," she said. "That's important to me to keep, because I think we have a good atmosphere here. Everybody likes people that are here, and we have really cool customers."

While the number of employees varies seasonally, Cannon said that nobody was displaced by the loss of the cafe — one employee was already heading to Home Depot.

Cannon said she also plans on adding a farmer's insurance agency to the business, and intends to rent out some space to crafters for the pending Christmas season.

"We've still got a lot to work out, but there's some changes and I think they're going to be neat changes," she said.

Cannon said she has had the Chocolate Factory since 1995, added JC Penney to the business in 1998, and the store has been in its current location for two and a half years.