As sweethearts express their love for one another, store employees are swamped with last-minute buyers.

Celebrating Valentine’s Day by exchanging cards and gifts with friends and loved ones has become is a two-fold tradition.

“Part of it is due to corporate America,” said Marti Dettman, graduate student in sociology.

Dettman said the holiday is also “a way for couples to recognize and appreciate each other.”

For whatever reason, the Valentine’s Day holiday means huge business, especially for places such as HyVee, 640 Lincoln Way.

“It’s a last-minute holiday,” said Mark Shanahan, general merchandise manager. “Heart boxes are a big last-minute item.”

“People don’t usually just come in and buy chocolate,” but they will on Valentine’s Day and the day before, he said.

Shanahan said the store gets extra help to deliver flowers and gifts and draws people in from different departments to help.

Flowerama, 104 Lincoln Way, is overwhelmed with business as well.

Manager Kathy Mason said sales were up 27 percent at 8 a.m. Wednesday from the same time last year.

Mason said workers at the store have arranged 300 dozen roses and 42 “deluxe dozens,” which are in a fancier vase and cost about $10 more. Florists at the shop have also wrapped an additional 300 dozen roses for carry-out.

She said the store keeps “four vans running” to complete the 250 deliveries it has scheduled for today. Flowerama did 50 or more deliveries yesterday, she said.

Mason said the shop mostly sells roses but also a lot of balloons and stuffed animals.

“Young guys buy roses and married men buy potted plants,” she said.

Connie Wilson of Walt’s Hallmark Shop, 620 Lincoln Center, said “this year men are coming in a lot sooner than in the past,” and buying a lot of gifts.

Wilson said Hallmark’s Kiss Kiss Bears have been popular items.

“When their noses touch, they play [the song] `All You Need is Love,’ ” she said.

Although she said people of all ages come in to buy Valentine’s Day cards, young people tend to buy more cards than gifts.

Besides the popular plush items for that special someone, “candy is selling really, really well,” Wilson said.

Valentine’s Day seems to be more traditional this year as far as candy and gift giving is concerned, she said.

But underneath all the chocolates, cards and flowers there is a legend behind Valentine’s Day.

David Hunter, professor of philosophy and religious studies, said the commemoration of the holiday originally began as a Roman celebration of two Christian martyrs, both named St. Valentine, on Feb. 14.

Separate from the celebration in recognition of St. Valentine was an ancient pagan festival called Lupercalia in Rome that was on Feb. 15. The ritual involved “sacrificing goats and young men running around nearly naked beating women with strips of goat skin,” Hunter said.

The festival was associated with sex and fertility, which is probably why Valentine’s Day has come to mean a symbol of love between couples and loved ones.

Hunter said Valentine’s Day is popular celebration today because “people enjoy rituals, and rituals are a way of giving order to society and marking special times.”