I keep a bowl of Hershey’s Kisses on a table by the door that also holds the coffeemaker. I settled on Kisses because they are small and several of them will fit in what is essentially a larger cereal bowl. And they are chocolate. Everyone likes chocolate.

I’ve been doing this for years. Actually, nearing two decades now. I have had a bowl of Hershey’s Kisses in the salon for as long as I’ve been in charge of the salon I work at.

In the beginning, I experimented with other types of candy. I don’t personally love hard candy, so that was out. I tried tiny Snickers, 3 Musketeers, and Milky Ways. I tried KitKats and Crunch bars and Twix. I tried a variety of different flavors of the Kisses; Hugs, with almonds, dark chocolate, and all the varieties they keep introducing.

I keep coming back to just filling the bowl with plain-old, regular, milk-chocolate Hershey’s Kisses.

This week I am reminded why.

Last week, I picked up several bags of discount Halloween candy. A couple of bags of miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (mmmm), a couple of bags of those tiny, bite-sized Milky Way/Snickers/3 Musketeers, Twix, and a variety pack of those Hershey’s Nuggets that consisted of pure milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and chocolate with almonds and toffee.

People went nuts. They ooh’d and aah’d over the new choices like someone had brought a 2-week-old baby into the place. Then they stood beside the table — blocking the doorway — for very long periods of time, slowly sifting through the new assortment, carefully picking out each shiny wrapper to inspect it before choosing their treat.

Within a couple of days all the dark chocolate had disappeared. Then all the chocolate with toffee was gone. Then all the peanut butter cups. (I have no idea what happened to those.)

Now, people come in and sort through the candy dish and whine and moan, “What happened to the dark chocolate?” “There’s no more with almonds?” “Oh, I wanted a Twix.”

And that’s why I keep Kisses in the candy bowl. They’re lucky there’s candy at all.

I’m gonna put a little sign on the bowl that says, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!”

Hmmm....maybe I’ll put that sign on my desk as well. This could be my new business model.