“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach…”
There is no day on the calendar quite as sweet as Valentine’s Day. The calendar tells us we have survived, perhaps, the harshest days of winter and now can see the promise of spring. It’s also the time, as poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning said in her straight from the heart Sonnet #43, when ‘a young person’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.’
There is at least a trio of legends of why the day became special. Each revolves around the saint, Valentine or Valentinus. Each also, sadly, ends with his death, perhaps making him the first fatality of Cupid’s arrow.
But between hearts and flowers, there is another more contemporary and commercial reason to celebrate this day of love.
Valentine’s Day is big business in the U.S. along with a whole collection of countries around the world. Depending on the source, Valentine’s Day is somewhere between a $19-$25 billion shot in the arm to the U.S. economy. That is a whole bouquet of candy, cards, flowers, jewelry, romantic dinners and everything else that carries the message of love and affection.
Chocolate is a favorite gift anytime, but especially on Valentine’s Day. “Our business probably increases by 200 percent,” said chocolatier Patty Dawson, owner of Lakewood’s Telluride Truffle. Located at 6006 West Alameda, this corner chocolate factory is a ‘go-to’ stop for anyone with an affection for confection.
A mostly self-taught chocolatier, Dawson opened her first chocolate stop in Telluride 26 years ago. It has remained open ever since. Her Lakewood store’s been offering sweet treats since 2019. She’s been successful, she said with a suppressed chuckle, because there’s never a bad time for chocolate.
The Aztecs and Mayans were first to discover the joys of chocolate. Moctezuma, emperor of the Aztecs, is said to have consumed copious amounts of chocolate each day, likening it to the spark igniting the fire of desire, the most delightful of all aphrodisiacs. After discovering it in their conquest, the Spaniards took it back to Europe. It was a taste never before experienced and it spread across borders almost instantly.
Valentine’s Day chocolate sales are not just a February 14th event, said Dawson, whose on-line business —telluridetruffle.com—outpaces her retail side. And it’s not just her store. The National Confectioner’s Association says that 86 percent of Americans will buy chocolate or another candy treat in a grocery or specialty store to mark the day.
While Dawson has no criticism of over-the-counter chocolate, she doesn’t think it rivals the quality of the product she and other chocolatiers make and sell. “Depth of flavor,” is what separates her chocolate—both milk and dark—she said. “We use really high-grade chocolate, high grade ingredients and organic whipping cream.” The latter, said Dawson, comes from cows that “have not been injected” with antibiotics and hormones.
Chocolate is just one slice of the Valentine’s Day economic pie, but a big slice; a $4.1billion serving. Valentine cards are also a big deal, stunningly big deal!
According to the Aurora-based Greeting Card Association, 190 million Valentine’s Day cards will be exchanged today to the tune of a billion dollars. An estimated 145 million ‘units’—Valentine cards—will be shared and that does not include classroom Valentines.
Baby Boomers still buy the most on Valentine’s Day cards, but Millennials have supplanted them in money spent on paper-based Cupid’s arrows. Cards professing love or even unrequited love and affection range from fifty cents to ten dollars per card. The Greeting Card Association’s Endsley Eggert said, “there is a card for every budget.”
Chocolate and cards are always a good go-to on this special day. But flowers, too, have their own special cachet. According to the website Petal Republic, flowers account for $2.4 billion in Valentine’s Day sales and 30 percent of flower sales for the entire year.
The rose, more specifically, the red rose, is the most popular Valentine’s Day posey. There are a few legends as to why the rose is regal. One is attributed to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Aphrodite, legend has it, was scratched by the thorn of a white rose which then magically turned red. Another version is connected to Adonis, lover of Aphrodite. A rose, the tale explains, grew where he died and where Aphrodite’s tears fell when learning of his death.
If roses top your offering of affection, expect to pay anywhere from $70 to $125 for a dozen long-stemmed red roses. Hint: It’s not just the thought.
And then, there is jewelry, a sure-fire Valentine gift. In 2023, Americans spent an estimated $6.2 billion to show their February 14th love, according to the National Retail Foundation.
Pueblo’s legacy jewelry store, Jack Armstrong Jewelers, bustles with energy every Valentine’s Day. Co-owner Diana DeLuca Armstrong said the day “is our second busiest time next to Christmas.” Men, she said, make up the majority of the day’s customers. DeLuca Armstrong said they’ll usually come in a day before or on the day itself to make the buy. Engagement rings are big sellers, “also gold roses…they don’t wilt, and some (people) collect a different color every year.”
Valentine’s Day dinners are also important economic drivers. Romantic dinners for the mid-February event mean $4.4 billion for restaurants with the average meal estimated at $31.
On this very blissful day, pets also get their share of love and affection. The National Retail Association says pet owners will spend somewhere north of $2 billion on their furry, feathered or scaled housemates.
If 2023 was any indicator, Americans will be shelling out more than $25 billion on Valentine chocolates, cards, flowers and jewelry. Setting a figure on worldwide Valentine’s Day spending is unclear but more than 30 countries around the world set aside a day or even a week to toast love and affection.
While there is most assuredly something charming about this ‘day for lovers,’ it, like certain chocolate, can leave a lingering and bittersweet taste. According to the National Retail Association, as much as $9.5 billion spent on Valentine’s Day gifts is ultimately unwanted by recipients. Not even Cupid hits the sweet spot every time.
