Valentine’s Day is, for most Americans, the annual pinnacle of romance, personified by boundless bouquets of flowers, boxes of chocolate truffles and bundles of greeting cards. But for merchants who peddle the goods of love, Feb. 14 is the equivalent of a marathon.
It’s like the Super Bowl for florists, said Chim Kenworthy a manager at Rhythm & Blooms in Eugene.
“It’s the biggest and most important day of the year,” she said. “Most of the florists depend on Valentine’s Day to make the money that will carry them through the summer.”
Pat Brooks, co-owner of Eugene’s Flower Home, located at 610 E. 13th Ave., said although she runs a business, she worries foremost about her customers’ emotional well-being.
“I would rather say that we are really concerned with making people happy, than making money,” she said. “But it actually is the busiest day.”
Flowers are a popular gift on other holidays, but Valentine’s Day has a smaller window of time, Brooks said. Winter holidays mean a busy month, and Mother’s Day orders are spread out over a week-long period, but Valentine’s Day customers usually ask that flowers arrive on Feb. 14.
“It’s primarily one day, so it’s the most volume all at once,” she said.
Anna Fenley, a sales associate at Paper Traders, a card and stationery store in the Fifth Street Public Market, said that Valentine’s Day is perhaps the single biggest day of the year to sell cards.
For Euphoria Chocolate Company, a Eugene confectioner founded in 1980, the winter holiday season provides more revenue, but owner Bob Bury said he sells more candy on Valentine’s Day than any other day of the year.
“Valentine’s has always been intense,” Bury said. “It is just uncanny that guys are so clueless. We always wait until the last minute.”
The most-sold candies at Euphoria are chocolate truffles, Bury said, because his company doesn’t produce any standard assortment boxes, but anything heart-shaped or in a red box sells well too.
For flowers, no matter which florist, roses are hands-down the most popular, Kenworthy said.
Brooks, who has owned her shop since 1963, said that at one point red tulips were more preferred, but now traditional red roses overshadow all other flora.
“You’re talking about hundreds of dozens of roses,” she said.
Florists begin preparing for the big day by placing orders several weeks in advance and stocking up on ribbons, vases and wire, but a perishable product complicates the job. Too much preparation can result in unappealing, old flowers, Brooks said.
“We like to say that we send things out trembling, they’re so fresh,” she said.
Bury may not have to deal with wilting roses, but he said Euphoria faces its own challenges as it strives to provide fresh handmade chocolates for its customers. Truffles, which are made with cream and chocolate, get stale. In the four to five days leading up to Valentine’s Day, Euphoria will make 6,000 to 7,000 of the hand-dipped delicacies per day.
“Truffles are fresh and don’t last as long as other candy, so people try to wait as long as they can,” he said. “It takes a huge amount of preparation.”
Bury spent Monday making deliveries and taking care of business at the company’s three locations.
“I’ve never seen it so busy in my life,” he said Monday evening. “I’m looking out the window, and it looks like the county fair parking lot.”
Contact the news editor at [email protected]
