Thursday, February 15, 2007

Valentine's Day Obsessions

America is totally and utterly obsessed with Valentine's Day.

The bundles of junk mail we get every week sprouted strange red leaves.

The shops were filled with screaming kids and harassed mums saying, "Well, if you get the train ones for the boys in your class and... Michael! Put that down!"

Blogs and news articles all over the web muse on the commericalisation of Valentine's Day and statistics showing people spend around $100 each on average on it. Women spend less than men - whether this is because it's hard to buy gifts for guys or whether women place more importance on the day, I don't know.

Rite Aid had a whole section devoted to Valentine's Day cards, and another to candies - it looked like a red and pink explosion. Or, as Brendan so nicely pointed out, the aftermath of a suicide bomber. Icky.

The day after, one entire row of shelves are stripped bare, with a few remaining snatches of red on the other. It's as if a horde of panicking dads ran through the shop, grabbing at every pink thing in sight that morning in an effort to get their significant others something 'significant'.

We just bought cheap chocolates. And laughed.

2 comments:

Tina said...

Oops! The statistics are a little old (2006, not 2007). But they give an idea of the scale of the obsession. I mean, do you buy presents for your co-workers for Valentine's Day? It seems like a very platonic thing.

Lina said...

Lol! There's a reason why I'm refusing to "celebrate" Valentine's Day. By the way... we didn't have it until a couple years back and (surprise, surprise) it got introduced by shops...