the way we do what we do, we have to charge more than your average chocolate bar.... There's usually a 40 to 50 percent markup between wholesale sales and the price... on the retail store shelf. So, say we sell a chocolate bar for $4.50 then the wholesale price is going to be somewhere around $2.70 for that unit. The distributor price [is] even lower, maybe around $2." Distributors buy in the largest quantities, which for Taza means a pallet load as opposed to a case that a wholesaler would buy. "But wholesale will always be our bread and butter, where we really move the volume and we have good margins.... It's been challenging for us to work with distributors. Theyre always squeezing you on price, or trying to give you charge backs, or run promotions or do sales whereas the average wholesale customer is, in our industry at least, much more used to accepting what we give them in terms of promotions or pricing" Taza does almost no advertising, relying instead on Facebook, Twitter, a company blog, email, and events that create buzz like chocolate salons, food shows, in-store tastings, and especially frequent sampling in upscale and organic food stores in big metropolitan areas. The company tries to cultivate the same sort of personal relationships with members of its distribution channel as it does with its cocoa farmers. \"When we send a shipment of chocolate,' says the sales director, "sometimes we'll put in a little extra for the people who work there. That always helps because you're building that kind of human relationship." A privately owned firm, Taza has just begun shipping its chocolate products