Businesses stock up for day of romance

READYING FOR VALENTINE’S DAY: Neapolitan manager Mallory Ely decorates Valentine pastries. Staff photo by HALEY HUGHES.

Valentine's Day: The most romantic time of the year and, for some Aiken businesses, among the busiest.

"We start stocking Valentine's Day merchandise usually in the first or second week of January," said Aiken Office Supply floor manager April Bracco.

The Whiskey Road store, a Hallmark Gold Crown location, carries Hallmark's lines of holiday greeting cards and Valentine themed stuffed animals and gift items. The store's stock of nonseasonal gift items also sees an uptick in sales as the holiday approaches, according to Bracco.

"Recordable storybooks for children are always big. We always have Hallmark's animated plush animals for every season; this year we've got pink apes. This is our second biggest holiday of the year, after the Christmas season," she said.

Kristi Yaughn, owner of Cannon House Florist on Old Airport Road, said Valentine's Day is one of her business's biggest holidays.

"The bad economy does not affect Valentine's Day at all; it's amazing," she said. "Valentine's Day is our busiest day of the year, especially when it falls in the middle of the week - everybody loves to get flowers at work. I think Wednesday and Thursday it got pretty busy, and I expect Monday and Tuesday to be our busiest days. I'd say we'll do at least three or four times the business of a normal week, but it's hard to predict."

Neapolitan manager Mallory Ely said the Laurens Street cupcake shop has had a busy week with more to come.

"It's very, very busy right now, and I have a feeling all the men are going to wait until Monday and Tuesday to put in their orders - we'll have backup in the store those days," Ely said. "We've had mostly special orders, and we've sold more of our Sweetheart Dozen. Valentine's is one of our bigger events this season."

La Bonbonniere Fine Belgian Chocolates in the Holley Building has assembled a line of Valentine's Day special packages.

"We've been selling holiday treats, chocolate heart boxes, we can't keep them in - they're buying everything, by the piece or the gift packages," said sales associate Kim Hatcher. "We started selling them last week around Thursday, and it's very big; I expect it will be very busy Monday and Tuesday. Valentine's Day, Christmas and Mother's Day are our biggest times of the year, I guess because girls love chocolate."

Suzanne Stone is a general assignment reporter at the Aiken Standard. Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com, or follow on Twitter at #SuzanneRStone and on Facebook at Suzanne Stone | Aiken Standard.