Jeeyou Jung '25
Every year on Valentine's Day, lovers spend $23.9 billion for their significant others, making Valentine's Day the third largest consumer spending holiday in the United States. In 2021, the average amount spent was $164.76 per person; considering the average American monthly income of $4000, this is not an amount that can be carelessly spent. As a result, Valentine’s Day has become a major source of income for big and small businesses in various fields, ranging from jewelry to flowers, candy, and food. Statistics show that the jewelry sales in America jump 40 percent in February, and approximately 2.3 billion dollars are spent solely on flowers. The impact of Valentine’s Day on the economy is significant for both consumers and businesses.
Due to the boost of sales, a lot of businesses perceive Valentine’s Day as a significant opportunity to increase profit. The high demand exceeds the supply, elevating the price for meals, flowers, jewelry, candy, and more. Seated meals averaged 10 to 15 percent more costly on the night of Valentine’s Day, roses that symbolize quintessential love are sold anywhere between 30 to 50 dollars, and new jewelry that are released as the Valentine’s Day edition cost up to 3 times more than a normal jewelry. While these commodifications of emotion may seem extremely advantageous for businesses, it may have a negative impact on the consumers. Rather than portraying genuine emotions, the focus of Valentine’s Day has shifted to illustrating emotions embellished with materialistic, lavish commodities.
A student at Cate High School believes that “Valentine’s Day became a day for presenting your gifts, rather than your emotions. The general notion became that the more expensive the gift, the more potent the love. I feel pressured to show my love with luxurious gifts rather than hand-written letters.” This shows how the norm of illustrating love on Valentine’s Day is centered around money. However, although costly gifts can be a means of portraying love, it is certainly not the only “correct” way to do so. Other means of expressions such as handmade flowers, bowls, or letters can mean as much as an expensive gift. This coming Valentine’s Day, students are encouraged to ponder about their definition of love and different ways to express it.
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