Valentine's Day is big business. A 2011 survey by the market research firm BIG research projected that Americans would spend a total of $3.4 billion dollars on Valentine's Day dinner last year, with the average Joe (or Jane) planning on dropping $116.21 on a romantic meal. Dinner wasn't the only thing Americans were planning on paying for last year to celebrate the occasion. National Retail Federation survey estimates indicated that we would spend 3.5 billion on jewelry, 1.1. billion on greeting cards and 1.7 billion on flowers. Mint.com tracked actual Valentine's 2011 spending and found that, individually, their users spent an average of around $73 dollars on flowers and anywhere from $220 to just over $500 on jewelry.
A smile cost nothing, but gives so much. It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature's best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. (B.J. Morbitzer)
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