LEWISTON – How can life possibly get sweeter for a man who makes candy all day?

For Roger Allen, owner of Mary’s Candy Shop, it starts by selling the 74-year-old business.

“It’s just time,” said Allen, who put the business on the block a few months ago. “The long, long hours … it’s time to pass it on.”

To the candy customer, Mary’s is a chocolate wonderland. Eye-high shelves loaded with handmade delicacies greet shoppers as they walk in the door, enveloped in the aroma of chocolate. Toward the back are appealing display cases filled with dozens of chocolate variations, to purchase by weight (the candies’, not yours).

And therein lies the problem. To set up just one display case requires eight hours of the chocolatier’s time.

“People don’t see it, the time everything takes,” Allen said. “Chocolate is delicate … these are nice displays.”

Right now he’s gearing up for the holidays, which means 12-hour days Monday through Saturday, with a few hours on Sunday just for good measure. Nothing is automated; all the chocolate is hand-dipped, just as it was when Mary and James Lafkiotes started the business in 1933.

“If I want, say, an inventory of 50 of one kind of Santa Claus, it can take a month,” said Allen, who has owned the business for nearly 14 years. “I can only make four a day. And since it’s not the only thing I can do on a given day, it takes a while.”

He barely catches his breath after Christmas and then it’s time to gear up for Valentine’s Day. Next year Easter comes early, meaning he’ll go right from dipping chocolate hearts to dipping chocolate bunnies. A nearly unbroken stretch of 80-hour work weeks.

Still, putting the business up for sale was a difficult decision for him.

“It did not come easy. A lot of thought has gone into it, and it’s taken me a year to get to this point,” he said. “It’s really been a joy, a source of happiness for me. I enjoy the interaction with customers, the chit chat. You get to know the families … I’ll miss that.”

So far, Allen’s had a few inquiries, but nothing concrete. He’s not revealing the purchase price, nor the store’s revenues, but Mary’s Candy Shop is turning a profit, he said. The store does a fair amount of wholesale and mail order business, as well.

Once the business is sold, Allen expects to find other work. Something nice and manageable in the 40-hour-per-week range.

“I’d like to punch a clock,” he said. “Go home, have supper and stay home.”

Prospective buyers should contact him directly at the store. Allen will give them a tour, explain the business and offer a sample or two.

Nothing like chocolate and its aroma to sweeten a deal.

“That’ll get ’em hooked,” he joked.