Valentine’s Day By The Numbers: What We Spend On Our Sweethearts

It’s no secret that Valentine’s day has become the most marketable holiday for Hallmark cards and florists but the actual amount of money we spend on the day for our special someone and the number of items produced for the Feb. 14 “holiday” might surprise you.

Every year more then one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent out n the mail. Second only to Christmas when 2.6 billion cards are sent. When you taken into consideration the number of cards handed out to classmates on V-Day that number shouldn’t be surprising with kids giving approximately 650 million cards away each Feb. 14.

Those little Sweethearts Conversation Hearts we only like to eat on Valentine’s Day are also not hurting for business with 8 billion little hearts sold for just this one day of the year.

When you throw in other merchandise such as balloons, stuffed animals, chocolates, lingerie, jewelry and other gifts consumers spend $15.7 billion on their significant others and classmates while spending an additional $5.04 billion on their pets.

Of that $15.7 billion spent on our love interests $3.5 billion goes towards jewelry while $1.7 billion buys flowers and $1.5 billion purchases an assortment of candy.

Breaking those numbers down even further 73 percent of all Valentine’s Day purchases are made by men while 15 percent of U.S. women have admitted to sending themselves flowers on Valentine’s day.

While Valentine’s Day is seen as a forced grand gesture for couple’s looking to celebrate their love for one another it really has become a corporate holiday meant to push the sale of gifts, then again my wife never seems to mind that part even if a dozen roses costs three times as much on Feb. 14.

Do you feel as if Valentine’s Day spending has gotten out of control in terms of consumer spending?