Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day—a
billion dollar business
Esther Howland, the woman who
produced the first commercial American
valentines in the 1840s, sold a then mindboggling
$5,000 in cards during her first
year of business. The valentine industry
in the United States has been booming
ever since. Today, over 1 billion valentine
cards are sent in this country each
year—second in number only to
Christmas cards, according to the
Greeting Card Association.
Around 85 percent of all valentines are
purchased by women. In addition to
cards, there are millions of boxes of
chocolates and bouquets of roses
purchased (mostly by men) for the February 14th Holiday!
