Morgan Linthicum opened The Market at Church Creek in 2020, bringing her passion for chocolate making and business training together. (Photo by Sean Clougherty)
Morgan Linthicum welcomes all customers into her chocolate shop, The Market at Church Creek, but on Valentine’s Day, she pays close attention to the husbands and boyfriends who come in with a look of desperation.
With a few dozen different options for sweet treats, all made right behind the store’s counter, she’s happy to help.
“I like that man coming in and saying, ‘I forgot it was Valentine’s Day, can you help me?’ I like telling him, ‘I’ve got you.’”
Linthicum launched the store in November 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and while on maternity leave from her full-time job in corporate health care.
With a business degree and parents as business owners, Linthicum said she knew she should have put together a business plan for the store, but plunged in without one; it was either going to work or it wasn’t, she said.
In its little more than three years, it’s worked. Ramping up for each holiday, Linthicum and a few helpers churn out thousands of dipped, drizzled, wrapped and sprinkled treats from Valentine’s Day through Christmas, tweaking the menu from one occasion to the next, along with the store’s decor.
“There really is never a time when there’s no decoration at all,” she said. “I try to be as festive as possible.”
She’s also listened to customers and reacted quickly. After several requests for dark chocolate items, she churned out a long line of options to meet that demand.
Linthicum added about a third of her best sellers have come from customer feedback.
She started making chocolate in her college years, “just having fun in between classes and studying and things like that,” she said.
Once graduated, she pursued it further, establishing a client list of companies who give her chocolates as gifts to their clients. But it stayed a part time gig until the Church Creek store opened.
By May of 2021, the store was successful enough to allow her to leave the health care field and focus on the store full-time.
“I’m beyond grateful,” she said. “It’s incredible the amount of people that found us.”
Along with her chocolate creations, Linthicum devotes some of the store’s space to other local artisans.
The Market reopened Jan. 27, redecorated from it’s Christmas season and will be open everyday through Valentine’s Day.
And once the hustle of that day subsides, it won’t be long until the next chocolate occasion comes around.
“The week after, they’ll start asking, ‘When are you getting your Easter eggs out?’”
