Valentine’s Day: Big Love or Big Business?

Valentine’s Day. The day of love and romance? Or an excuse for consumerism and business opportunity? Everyone has their own take on the “holiday”. What’s yours?

To go along with the theme of the day, check out these Valentine’s Day statistics:

• 85% of all Valentine cards are bought by women.
• Chocolate and candy sales reach profits of $1,011 billion during Valentines
• 73% of flowers are bought by men, and only 27% are by women.
• Over 1 billion Valentine cards are exchanged in the U.S each year. It’s the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.
• California produces 60% of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine’s Day in the United States are imported mostly from South America. Approximately 110 million roses, the majority of which are red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.
• $72 is the average amount women spend on gifts on Valentine’s Day; $135 is the average amount men spend.
• 25% of people treat their significant others to an evening out.
• The main consumers of Valentine’s Day merchandise are between 25 and 34, with each spending an average of 164 dollars.
• Consumers are expected to purchase more than $345 million in chocolate candy during Valentine’s week, accounting for 5.1% of annual sales in the chocolate candy category. Consumers will purchase more than $448 million worth of total candy during Valentine’s week.
• Valentine’s week is one of the top weeks for sparkling wine sales, with more than $8.6 million in sales. More than 881,000 bottles of sparkling wine will be sold during the holiday week. Only Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s have higher sales.
• Seventy million Americans will celebrate Valentine’s Day at a restaurant this year, according to the National Restaurant Association.

–JK