The cafe's one-pound gift box assortment is $10.95; a half-pound box is $6.95. You can choose individual chocolates from the glass counter for the same price per pound.

At the Bluebird Candy Factory's gift shop, I caught a glimpse through the door behind the counter of the staff presumably boxing or dipping chocolates. A one-pound box is $12.95, and a small "duet" box of one dark and one light chocolate is $1.30. By comparison, a pound of See's chocolates is $14.10. When asked about "seconds," the clerk said there are only a few during the busy winter months, and they go quickly.

Gossner Foods Inc.

Besides the company's popular Swiss cheese, you'll find mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, Monterey Jack and Muenster in the gift/thrift shop attached to the factory. There's usually a cluster of customers around the sampling station, smearing crackers with various cheese spreads or feeling rubbery cheese curds "squeak" between their teeth.

There are beautiful bricks of cheese for $2.05 to $2.85 per pound, depending on the type. By comparison, supermarket cheese usually costs $3 to $5 per pound, depending on the brand.

"Economy cuts" — the irregular pieces left over when the cheese is cut into blocks — are even better bargains. They sell from $1.70 per pound for Colby-Jack to $2 per pound for Swiss and $2.35 for sharp cheddar. End cuts vary in size, so you don't have to buy a huge brick to get a price break. Sure, they're misshapen, but as a Colorado woman remarked as she filled her cart, "With prices like this, who cares?"

Fun food find: Cheese curds — fresh, young cheddar cheese before being processed into blocks and aged — are $2.60 per pound. (Eat them within a day or two, or they lose their Silly Putty texture.) I bought some low-fat Swiss, which was surprisingly tender, meltable and well-flavored.

Gossner offers wares from other purveyors for one-stop shopping if you're short on time: Aggie Ice Cream cones; Weeks Berries jam, juices and syrups; Cox honey; Old Gristmill bread; and flavored cartons of milk that are irradiated and don't need refrigeration.

On Fridays and Saturdays you can also find Crumb Brothers bread. Gossner also sells shelf-stable milk in single-serve cartons for 30 cents each, or $7.35 for a case of 27. In addition to plain 2 percent, they come in various flavors, such as chocolate, strawberry, root beer and mango.

Heart to Heart Foods Inc.