A holiday of consumerism: Valentine’s day stats

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… in dollar signs and crass consumerism. Valentine's Day: the season of hearts. For many, the February holiday evokes romantic images of candle lit dinners, bouquets of roses and falling head-over-heels in love. It's a day when people perfunctorily exchange cards, candy, and flowers with loved ones.
Although we think of Cupid's arrow zinging through the air, striking the hearts of star-crossed lovers every year, it actually hits a direct bull's-eye into the hearts of businesses across the United States.

Here are the statistics for trends on this day of mad love and mad business.

Cards
180 million cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second most popular card giving holiday of the year.

50 percent of all cards are purchased in the week prior to the holiday, while most are sold within the 48 hours prior.

Teachers will receive the most cards, followed by children, mothers, wives and then sweethearts.

3 percent of people will give cards to their pets.

1,330 different cards are specifically designed for Valentine's Day by Hallmark.

Candy

1,233 locations and 38,794 employees produced chocolate and cocoa products in 2007.

466 locations and 18,250 employees produced non-chocolate confectionary products in 2007.

8 billion conversation hearts will be produced this year. That's enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.

On average, men shell out $130 each on candy, cards, jewelry, flowers and dates. That's more than double what women commit to spending.

36  million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for
Valentine's Day.

$14.4 billion:  Total value of shipments in 2007 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products. Non-chocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.6 billion industry.

3,643 confectionery and nut stores were open for business in the United States in 2007.

23.8 pounds was the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2008.
Flowers

$403 million is the combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2008 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales.

19,759 is the number of florists nationwide in 2007. In 2007 these businesses employed 93,779 people.

Jewelry

27,484 jewelry stores in the United States in 2007. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2009, these stores sold $2.2 billion in merchandise.

Be My Valentine

904 dating services were established nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenue.

15 percent of women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.

64 percent of men do not make plans with their sweethearts, but beware; 53 percent of women in America would dump their boyfriend if they did not get them anything for Valentine's Day.

70 percent of celebrators give a card followed by a phone call (49 percent), special dinner (37 percent), candy (33 percent), restaurant meal (30 percent), and flowers (19 percent).