February 14th officially became Valentine's Day in 496. But it wasn't always the iconic holiday that it is today, in fact, most of the things we associate with Valentine's Day are actually relatively new inventions. The holiday's history in North America started with people exchanging homemade gifts and cards until the 1840's when Esther Howland made the first mass-produced Valentine. We'd get the first heart-shaped box of chocolates 20 years later in 1868 and another 40 years after that we'd get the first hallmark Valentine but since then Valentine's Day has become one of the biggest commercial holidays on the calendar with over 19 billion dollars being spent each year.
But what exactly are we spending all this money on? Valentine's Day is a celebration of love and nothing says love more in our collective minds than pretty flowers and diamond rings but even though 14 million Americans will propose this Valentine's Day and millions more will receive a bouquet of flowers, Valentine's Day still trails far behind Christmas Day on both accounts. In fact, it's even behind Mother's Day when it comes to flowers but when it comes to roses nothing even comes close. Over 250 million roses are purchased each Valentine's day. So where are all these roses coming from? The answer, for the most part, is Columbia.
Columbia is a powerhouse when it comes to flora culture. It's an industry that employs 130,000 Colombians and exports over 4 billion flowers to the US every year and even still about 20% of Columbia's annual floral revenue comes specifically from Valentine's Day roses. In the lead up to Valentine's Day 30 or more cargo planes arrive at Miami International Airport each day and each one of those contains just over a million roses. All in all, Columbian cargo companies and their pilots make up to 12 flights a day to meet the demand and of course that also means more work for the Border Patrol agents who have to inspect over 800 million flower stems in time for the big day. But of course, the journey isn't over once they cross the border because they still have to get in the hands of romantics and the people they love and online flower delivery companies and their drivers made four billion dollars in 2018 doing just that.
While the majority of Valentine's Day flowers used to go to florists, today it's actually grocery stores and corner stores that get the biggest piece of the pie. And even though a bouquet of roses cost $31 in August, on February 14th that same bouquet will run you just under $50. But just how much money you can make selling Valentine's roses seems to hinge entirely on one unexpected factor, the day of the week.
According to the experts, Sunday sell the least roses and Wednesday sell the most but it's hard to pin down exactly why. It seems like the answer has something to do with the fact that 75% of people buying flowers on a Valentine's Day are men and when Valentine's Day falls on a weekday they're much less likely to have a plan laid out than if it were to fall on a weekend. Regardless of what day it falls on, Valentine's Day has become an undeniable institution and today it's grown to be celebrated by 55% of Americans who spend an average of $140 expressing their love each year. So if you find yourself scrambling for a gift on Valentine's Day why not go with a dozen roses? Nothing says you're my one in a million like getting the same gift as twenty million other Americans.
Happy Valentine's Day!
As found on Youtube
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://macro.ml/how-much-money-is-really-spent-on-valentines-day/
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