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 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 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 2022 is the online marketplace, visited by 41% of all Valentine's shoppers, followed by department stores (32%), discount stores (28%), and local and specialty shops (18%) and florists (17%), according to the NRF.
Candy (56%), greeting cards (40%), flowers (37%), an evening out (31%) and jewelry (22%) remain some of the most popular purchases.