Maaan if carob wasn't domestic I doubt Americans would have ever bothered with it. Ritter Sports are... okay chocolate. The West Coast of the US has pretty much all of the USA's boutique chocolate makers - See's, Ghirardelli, Dilettante, a dozen sub-brands. We've kind of gone a different way from Swiss/Belgian/German chocolate. Here Hershey's is like 89 cents a bar while half again as much Theo is $2.99. Carob raisins? about 70% as much as chocolate raisins (when you can find them) and who the fuck would eat them anyway.
I still don't get your dismissive attitude towards carob, but then, I haven't lived through being ostensibly forced to eat it instead of chocolate. Maybe it was as bad as you claim it was. If I'm ever in the US, I'm trying your local carob bars.
Healthy Foods or Whole Foods section, right? Do you guys have those in them big malls? We have sections shared between special foods (for diabetics, for lactose-intolerant etc.) and those marketed as healthy and wholesome.