SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – It just wouldn’t be the Christmas season in the Bay Area without those classic red-wrapped boxes of assorted chocolates.
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And if you've driven by the See’s Candies factory in South San Francisco and smelled the delicious aroma of sweets in the air, you may have wondered how much work goes into making sure there are enough truffles, brittle, and lollipops on the shelves to make it through the holidays.
"My favorites are the chocolate, milk chocolate with marshmallows, rocky road, butterscotch squares," said one Bay Area See's enthusiast.
These and more line the shelves of the South San Francisco shop connected to the factory and the hundreds of other storefronts – permanent and pop-up – ready for the holidays.
The effort to make sure everything is fully stocked this time of year is carried by a lot manpower and a lot of hours of preparation.
"We have such a build-up, we kind of call it our Superbowl," said See's President and CEO Pat Egan.
"We're in the playoffs right now and the Superbowl’s about to come," he said. "We actually just got through the first round of the playoffs, which is Thanksgiving."
The year-round average of employees is around 2,500, but during the holidays that goes up to 8,000.
"It's every aspect of the business," said Egan. "One of the things that's unique about See’s is that we’re both a retailer and a manufacturer."
And the storefront and factory in South San Francisco is where those two sides of the business come together.
"We have everything – we have finance, we have IT, we have sort of every aspect of the business all in one nice little package," he said.
The classic consistency is one of the many things that keeps satisfied customers coming back, and not just during the holidays.
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