Valentine’s Day is just a Hallmark holiday
Today is Valentine’s Day. The day in the office when all the women hope for bouquets to be delivered and are sad when they don’t come. A day when the grocery store is filled with husbands and boyfriends on their way home from work grabbing grocery store flowers and a box of chocolates so they aren’t in trouble. What a dumb holiday.
My husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day because we both agree that it’s a Hallmark Holiday. It’s brilliant marketing because when you think about it the jewelry industry, flower shops, restaurants, candy manufacturers and of course Hallmark make a killing on V-Day. That guilt works wonders for commerce.
This day is meant to remind all those folks that are not good at being romantic or thoughtful all year long that they need to do “something” on Valentine’s Day. I think it’s far more special to get a bouquet of flowers “just because.” Not because we had a fight, or God forbid you forgot my birthday or you’re just being a jerk and I called you on it.
This reminds me of a similar day in credit union land – the third Thursday of October comes to mind….International Credit Union Day. Every year CUNA and WOCCU come up with a nice theme and a package that includes posters, and art for our websites and emails and it’s very well done. Last year they teamed with Credit Unions for Kids to Shop for Miracles which if you didn’t know about it should check it out.
Sadly many credit union lobbies just put up the obligatory card table with coffee and cookies and a sign. Sigh. Like Valentine’s Day it feels somewhat obligatory and seldom do they feel the love.
Banking is an errand. Members don’t GET to go to the credit union they HAVE to. It’s right up there with going to the gas station, dropping off dry cleaning, picking up flowers at the grocery store for Valentine’s Day…. – just another annoying errand. And for the most part the expectation is pretty low.
What if today we made an effort to make every member’s day special? Just because.
