A florist arranges roses at Mockingbird Lane Florists in preperation for the Valentine’s Day rush. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

Valentine’s Day. For some it may be about love, candy and flowers, but for several local shops it means one thing: money.

More than $13 billion is spent on Valentine’s Day annually, with nearly half of that being spent on chocolate and candy. The holiday helps to support locally owned businesses like Dude, Sweet Chocolate by providing a substantial increase in revenue and customers.

“Valentine’s is very fast and furious,” co-owner of Dude, Sweet Chocolate Katherine Clapner said. “You do two weeks worth of business in six days.”

While both men and women frequent the shop, Clapner said the buying pattern of men is very different.

“Valentine’s is hilarious because come Saturday, Sunday and Monday the guys are going to be in and they’re not going to care what they’re buying,” she said. “They just need to get some chocolate and leave with it so they don’t look like a jerk.”

Luckily for the last-minute shopper, Clapner and her team will be serving quality Valentine’s chocolates through Tuesday.

“I have a particular style,” Clapner said. “We believe it’s more about what’s inside the box than the ribbon and bows.”

All of the chocolates in Dude, Sweet Chocolate are made inside the 350-square-foot storefront using quality dark chocolate. Clapner also tries to incorporate many local products into the chocolate.

“I use a lot of local produce. I use very good cream, I don’t use corn syrup,” she said. “It’s all about the ingredients — it all starts here.”

While chocolate and candy are always a big hit, some may be surprised to learn that cards make up for more than half of the revenue during the holiday.

Although many customers turn to their local Hallmark for greeting cards, NUVO, which is located in Oak Cliff, offers a wide variety of cards and specialty gifts.

“Since we opened, we’ve always had a great card selection,” co-owner of NUVO Jeff Wright said. “We have more than 2,000 different cards.”

Supporting local stores like NUVO is important to many customers who enjoy the creative products sold in the store.

“Hallmarks are great for buying cards for Mom…but we’re just a little bit more sophisticated and upper-end,” Wright said.

The store opened 23 years ago, and according to Wright, aims to sell well-designed gifts, home furnishings, jewelry and books. While searching for the perfect card, customers can also find the perfect gift for their loved ones as the store sells an eclectic mix of jewelry, candy, home goods, artwork, candles and books.

“There are a lot of stores that are really high-end, or not as high-end, but we do a little bit of both,” Wright said.

For NUVO, Valentine’s Day means big business and the store stocks up on all the necessities, giving customers an array of products to choose from.

“Valentine’s is our second busiest season,” Wright said. “We do a lot of jewelry, chocolates, tons of cards…Over the Valentine’s weekend we’re going to be mobbed with people buying cards.”

The final item needed to make any Valentine’s perfect is flowers and no business does flowers quite like Dr. Delphinium.

The storefront, located on Lovers Lane in University Park, has been part of the Dallas community for more than 20 years.

Valentine’s Day is the store’s busiest holiday. Their team begins to prepare for the holiday around Christmas and will fill more than 1,000 orders in the course of a week.

“This is our big week. Really a week to week and a half before Valentine’s Day we just start going nuts,” Bryna Morrow, the wedding and events coordinator at Dr. Delphinium, said.

“We have thousands and thousands of customers in Dallas,” Morrow said.

The store also receives orders from customers all over the world. Many of them lived in the Dallas area at one point and still rely on Dr. Delphinium for their holiday flowers. And, if you don’t know what flower to choose, Morrow said the rose is always a safe choice.

“The roses are always the best way to go. It’s a classic standard, and everyone associates Valentine’s with roses.”

Dr. Delphinium has ordered 16,000 roses this year in preparation for the holiday. However, tulips are another great choice, according to Morrow.

“We actually order in more tulips every year than we do roses for Valentine’s Day,” Morrow said. This year the store ordered 21,000 tulips.

Morrow says that Valentine’s Day “sets the stage for the entire year as a whole” in terms of business.

“We try and knock it out of the park financially and beat what we did last year,” she said. “It’s a big part of our year for sure.”

Whether it is chocolate, cards, flowers or gifts, this year local shops are ready to help shoppers prepare for the big day.