Last Friday, Bay Area confectioner Charles Chocolates closed up shop – both literally and figuratively. Last year the company shut down its Emeryville factory and then last week it announced it will be closing its retail location in the Westfield Mall along with the company as a whole. Sad.

The official announcement was made on the company’s Facebook page: “It is with sadness, but also with profound gratitude for everyone who has supported Charles Chocolates over the last 6 1/2 years, that I have to announce that we have had to close our doors,” and was confirmed by Paolo Lucchesi at the Inside Scoop.

As owner Chuck Siegel said, “In a nutshell, we were trying to raise money for a remarkably cool project at Westfield. Basically, we weren’t able to,” Siegel says. “Being a small company, we bet the ranch on this project. It was all or nothing, and it turned out to be nothing.”

For more, go here.

• Tag: Charles Chocolates, Closures, confectioners, economy, sweets