The Sconi

If your sweetheart is looking for love in a box of chocolates this Valentine’s Day, it’s going to cost you more than it did in past years.

The cost of packaging is driving up the bottom line for a box of chocolates, whether they come in a heart-shaped container or the standard rectangular one.

"They probably went up a dollar, two dollars on the boxes,” Mark Beerntsen, owner of Beerntsen’s Candies, told Fox11. Beerntsen’s has two locations near Green Bay. 

What that means when you check your receipt is that probably 25% of the cost is for the box, maybe more, depending of the price per pound of the chocolates.

“Like I said, the candy we've held the same prices we've had at the last year, $18.95 a pound,” Beerntsen said. “The other $9, $10 that's the cost of the box.”

Considering that Americans spent about $1.8 billion on Valentine's Day chocolates, according to Fortunly estimates from last year, expect this year’s total outlay to be a lot higher.

Valentine’s Day has roots that go back further than the tradition of giving chocolate. That aspect of the holiday is traced to the 1840s or so, when Richard Cadbury of British chocolate manufacturing fame saw an opportunity to bolster sales by packaging the chocolates in fancy boxes and playing on the love theme, history.com said on its website. 

Candy store managers suggest buying items while they're available now, rather than risk finding them all sold out later. 

Those who can't find the holiday packaging, or don’t want to pay the premium for it, can always buy individual chocolates at many stores.