How did Valentine's Day become a huge commercial holiday?
Fox News
From the traditional flowers or chocolate to more expensive gifts such as diamonds, the holiday is just as much about spending your hard-earned cash as it is about love.
Merchants outside of the card industry such as jewelers, florists and confectioners eventually joined the bandwagon."When merchants rediscovered the [holiday], the former transformed the latter, not vice versa, as a merchants systematically extended the apparatus of the market into the realm of celebration," Schmidt wrote.But while companies did not create the holiday and some of its traditions, they certainly capitalized on it. The most popular shopping destination for 2021 is the online marketplace, visited by 39% of all Valentine's shoppers, followed by department stores (29%), discount stores (28%), and local and specialty shops (17%). Candy, greeting cards and flowers remain some of the most popular purchases, with gift cards, clothes and jewelry following not far behind. So while Valentine’s Day may be a traditional holiday about romance, there’s nothing accidental about its tendency to hit your pockets. Love may be free, but Valentine’s Day as we know it? Not so much.More Related News