Many Firms Find Cupid’s Arrow Tops Recession’s Barb

Love conquers all--even a recession.

Well, most of the time.

Though the love-struck may give their budget worries a holiday, this year’s gifts will be more sentimental than extravagant, said Evalene Polati, president of the Santa Ana-based National Valentine Collectors Assn.

The recession has not deflated the hot-air balloon business, contended Frank Jones, manager of Oz Airlines in Studio City, even if the weather has temporarily grounded operations.

“If we didn’t have passengers calling to fly on Valentine’s Day, that would indicate to me that the R word has affected our industry,” said Jones.

Valentine’s Day flights of four people, which cost $250 a couple and include a Champagne brunch, have been postponed until the skies are fair over Oz’s Moorpark or Lancaster sites, Jones said.

Dione Tanikawa, a 20-year-old UCLA computer engineering student, said her boyfriend will get a more down-to-Earth present. “I’m going to buy him a shirt, and I’ll probably spend between $30 and $40,” she said.

Legend has it that the holiday began when St. Valentine, a Third Century Roman priest and physician, was imprisoned for performing illegal wedding ceremonies. Just before he was executed, he passed a note to a woman he’d befriended in prison--a Valentine.

Today, Valentine’s Day is the busiest holiday of the year for the flower industry, with 100 million roses expected to be sold nationwide.

“I will sleep an hour and half a day for the next three days,” said Ted Iliadis, owner of a Conroy’s Flowers franchise in North Hollywood. Iliadis said he’ll make 2,000 flower arrangements, offer valet parking and boost staffing to 25 before the “one-day shot” at Valentine’s Day profits is over. This year, the holiday falls on a Friday, so deliveries will be tougher because customers will want their valentines to receive the flowers well before the end of the work day. And the threat of more storms doesn’t help a bit.

Across the nation, sales of all Valentine cards and gifts will total about $735 million, the same as last year, said Renee Hershey, a spokeswoman for Kansas City, Mo.-based Hallmark.

But the picture is hardly rosy for every merchant. Travel and boudoir photography, for instance, are down in some places.

“No business. Nothing. Zilch. It’s awful,” said Jimmy Moore, owner of Galaxy Travel in Santa Monica. “Last year we did very well on Valentine’s Day. This year people aren’t spending money, and they aren’t going anyplace.”

“People think they can spend money on something more practical or figure they can do it another time,” said photographer Judy Bry, who owns a studio in Irvine and charges $75 for a boudoir photo shoot, including hair and make-up.