With 10,000 chocolate bars on the way, she's running

Julie Atlas Griego wraps up an appointment and runs literally runs to her truck to get to her next appointment.

But you'd be running, too, if you faced the possibility that 10,000 chocolate bars might be arriving at your house in the next few weeks unless you get them sold.

Here's the situation: Griego, whose previous business experience includes years of planning children's birthday parties, in November launches a business, J.

Atlas Enterprises, with her 5-year-old daughter as a partner.

Looking for things to sell along with advertising specialties and T-shirts, Griego stumbles across chocolate bars with wrappers that highlight a particular city.

A little research finds that there isn't a chocolate bar featuring the Reno, Sparks and Lake Tahoe area.

(Griego, a Sparks resident, is very big on making sure that Sparks gets its due.) A little more research finds an Ohio company, Anthony Thomas Chocolate, that will manufacture 3-ounce bars for Griego.And the candy-maker helps Griego find the outfits that will print the wrappers and handle the hot-foil stamping.

Griego talks to a photographer friend, Fred Cornelius of Reno, who provides photos for the wrapper.

They pick scenes of Lake Tahoe.

Hot August Nights.

Griego's daughter at Wild Island.And so on.

She spends more than $700 to get a bar code for the wrapper only to learn that she needs two more bar codes one for the boxes of 12 chocolate bars she'll sell at wholesale, another for the cases of 72.

Griego goes back to her father, who is financing the deal, and promises that the souvenir chocolate bars are going to be a hit.

He stays in.

So she calls the printer with an order for 10,000 wrappers.

She still has a few days before the wrappers are completed and delivered to Anthony Thomas Chocolate.

But she hasn't yet ordered the chocolate bars themselves.At worst, she could end up with 10,000 chocolate wrappers in her garage.

Griego makes sales calls, one after another.

Big grocery chains.

Discount houses.

Resort hotels.

Tiny gift shops.

She figures the candy bars will retail for about $5.

They wholesale at $2.50.

But $5 isn't much for a souvenir, Griego tells her potential customers.

Besides, consumers are likely to buy two one to eat, one to take home.

Walgreens agrees to take on the candy bars.

Other potential customers are thinking about it.

If retailers don't buy into the program, Griego thinks the candy bars might be a good fundraiser for local schools especially for programs that bring matching corporate contributions.

She's got that program sketched out.