Jessica Waters for the Emerald
A bouquet of flowers from local florists can be a heart-felt gift.
Love gifts stir up business
Local florists, greeting card
stores and chocolate shops
prepare for the traditional
wave of holiday shoppers
Craig Coleman
Freelance Reporter
Before her Christmas merchan
dise was taken off the shelves,
Shirley Lyons, owner of Dandelions
Flowers and Gifts in West Eugene,
was busy developing a strategy for
the annual flower-buying frenzy that
occurs every Valentine’s Day.
Early in January, she had placed
the bulk of her orders for flowers
with wholesalers throughout the
United States and South America.
Then she had to search for extra per
sonnel to help create and design the
Valentine’s Day floral arrangements,
increasing her staff from 18 to 55.
She also assembled a fleet of 17 de
livery drivers to complete what she
believes will be more than 550 deliv
eries in a single day.
Even though much of the prepara
tion is done, Lyons said she’s expect
ing many sleepless nights the week
of Feb. 14.
“It’s challenging to try to do a
month’s worth of sales in one day,”
she said. “The staff is tired because
they won’t go home until late, then
they’ll be back early in the morning.
Well be working straight through the
night on Feb. 13.”
Lyons is one of many merchants, lo
cally and nationally, gearing up for the
first big shopping holiday of 2003. For
stores that carry the traditional Valen
tine’s gifts, such as flowers, candy and
jewelry, Valentine’s Day is one of the
most important single retail days.
“About 10 percent of our sales for
the year will come during that week
alone, and most of that on Valen
tine’s Day itself,” said Debbie Harris,
a sales associate at Mark’s Hallmark
store at Valley River Center.
As holidays go, Christmas is still
king with retailers. Mother’s Day,
Halloween and Easter, with less em
phasis on perishable merchandise
and longer shopping seasons, are
also considered more profitable than
Valentine’s Day. Still, for many
stores, a huge portion of annual rev
enue is generated on Feb. 14.
Jennifer Sparks, vice president of
marketing for the Virginia-based Soci
ety of American Florists, said 17 per
cent of all holiday flower purchases are
made on Valentine’s Day, with more
than a third of all cut flowers sold that
day. Florists sold 130 million roses
alone last year for Valentine’s Day.
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Perfect love mix tape
tells story, recreates
feelings, meetings
For two Saturdays, I spent the
day ensconced in my room,
sprawled out on my back, head and
arms hanging loosely over the foot
of the bed. I moved only to thumb
through records or flip them over. I
occasionally read an album sleeve,
but mostly just drifted through
notes, lyrics and random pops or
fuzzes. I’m not usually romantic,
but I was searching for love songs.
Valentine’s Day, that saccharine
holiday both
adored and re
viled, was fast
approaching. I
wasn’t on some
love-spurred
mission,
though. I was
on assignment.
My goal? The
perfect V-Day
mix tape CaHSOII
College stu- d.I.Y. living
dents are poor
practically by
definition. Pocket lint and imagina
tion have to take the place of pun
gent bouquets and diamonds when
Cupid comes around. But how?
Pink paper hearts, the staple of
kindergarten glue-eaters and sixth
grade boyfriends, are sweet but bor
ing. Homemade dinner is potential
ly disastrous and doesn’t last.
Hand-picked flowers have an air of
“I forgot” hastiness. A mix tape is
the perfect combination of cost
(practically none) and effort (possi
bly endless).
Mix tapes have a strong history of
personalized obsession. Rob Gor
don, the quintessential music nerd,
played by John Gusak in the movie
“High Fidelity,” is consumed with
creating the perfect mix.
“The making of a great compila
tion tape, like breaking up, is hard
to do and takes ages longer than it
might seem,” Gordon said. Not ex
actly great foreplay, but it gets the
idea across: Making a mix isn’t easy.
But the thought and effort makes it
such an appealing gift.
I love the idea of someone imitat
ing my Saturday, wasting languid
hours immersed in music and
thinking of me. It may be Mick Jag
ger singing that wild horses couldn’t
drag him away or Joan Jett saying
she thinks she could love me, but
the sentiment is all mine.
A good mix, like my Jagger/Jett
collaboration, follows a theme:
Love, long car rides, lonely nights.
But a great mix flows like honey. It
weaves a complex story: First
glances and first dates, nights under
stars and cars’ back seats, awkward
fumbling and first “I love yous.” Or
maybe it just recreates a feeling:
Stomach butterflies, sweaty palms,
soft kisses, long tumbles head over
heels.
Mix tape geeks, like Gordon, cre
ate rigid rules in their pursuit of
perfection: No more than one song
by a single artist, only one genre, no
CDs. The Web is flooded with in
ternerds expounding on their
proven method of creating a mix.
Right guys, your lovey tapes work
great. Oh, and I saw your e-girl
friend at RadioShack yesterday.
She’s neither “HOTT” nor “SXY.”
Your rules don’t matter. I’m in
clined to agree on the tape part, but
my tastes are esoteric: More Lud
dite than space-age. But format
doesn’t matter, either.
What does matter is that you
were thinking of someone when
you made your compilation. You
got excited about sharing your fa
vorite songs, inside jokes and un
said words.
A mix tape is tailored
to the recipient yet
flavored with the taste
of its maker.
I panicked at the thought of writ
ing this column. The mix tape idea
was mine. The V-day theme was
not. I admire romance in others,
but can’t pull it off myself. My tape
was going well until I thought “Like
You Better (When Yer Drunk)”
would be a funny addition.
Anyone receiving my tape,
though, would understand the joke.
Music is personal and intimate. A
mix tape is tailored to the recipient
yet flavored with the taste of its
maker. It contains your thoughts,
your humor and your love. So it
doesn’t matter if your mix starts
with “Shake Ya Ass” or “(Every
thing I Do) I Do It For You” — just
please, please, please don’t send me
anything you’ve heard in an eleva
tor. All booty music and rock ’n’ roll
will be gladly accepted.
Contact the Pulse columnist
at nikacarlson@dailyemerald.com.
Her views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.