Who out there is NOT counting calories, counting points, avoiding sugar, carbs and fat and trying to be healthy?

South Beach and Weight Watchers, just two of the recognizable healthy choice companies, are permeating US life style so completely that main line restaurants like Applebees have sections of the menus dedicated to healthy eaters.

Yet here comes Max Brenner, 38 years old, dripping in dark, rich, delicious chocolate. Chocolate by the Bad Man of NYC currently has 20 locations open in the US, Australia, Israel, Singapore and Philippines and plans to open THREE HUNDRED locations across the US in the next decade.

News reports abound of obese Americans young and old and yet Max is tapping into our longing for chocolately goodness. His first NYC location is 5,000 square feet of sweet confection with gigantic chocolate mixers, pipes filled with rivers of chocolate and a menu so tasty dentists are salivating at the potential future cavities.

How does someone look around a world of health conscious overeaters and say "gee, chocolate - there is an untapped niche?" Doesn't it feel a tad risky? Isn't it kind of like hosting Happy Hour at a rehab clinic?

Is tapping into our secret longing a good way to build a business? Or is it destined to be reduced to an online catalogue? It's like purchasing Erotica - you might be willing to place an anonymous order on line and pray that it comes in a brown paper bag; it is completely different to purposefully drive to a retailer of adult toys and brazenly shop where Aunt Sue might see.

What do you think? Can Max create a chocolate experience so different, so tempting that Middle America will hop off their diet band wagon to give it a try?

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Professional Writer, Chocoholic
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