Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Best and Busiest Blog, a blog devoted to the proposition that people are more alike and more predictable than we intuit--or than perhaps we care to admit.
Because I'm late in starting this blog (it was supposed to be a New Year's Resolution) we've missed some of my favorites from January and earlier in February, so I'll quickly recap them here. Initially, this blog will be un-footnoted, but over time I hope to develop not only links to media sources, but also to original sources, such as surveys and industry associations.
Was your gym busy on the first Wednesday after that first Monday in January? It certainly was. In fact, given that new gym signups peak on that first Monday, combined with continued signups on Tuesday and Wednesday, that Wednesday evening is probably the busiest single gym day of the year. By Friday, the urge to party has overtaken a Mon-Wed-Fri schedule, and by the following Wednesday, folks have begun to lose their zeal. So go ahead and give the gym a try a gain. It isn't nearly as crowded as it was.
When the Super Bowl was still in January, the busiest day for television sales (or large screen TVs) was widely reported as the Saturday before Super Sunday. Two factors conspired to make this so. First, retailers' fiscal years mostly end on January 31 (allowing them plenty of time to process returns and extra inventory from their busiest time of year--Christmas--before closing the books on a year), and second, consumers wanted a big TV. With the Super Bowl now in February, things are a little murkier. Fiscal years still end on January 31, so Super Saturday now falls at the start, rather than the year end of electronics retailers, which may have caused the peak to spread out--some in January and some in February. We shall see.
Then Super Sunday itself is close to the busiest day for hosting a party (with New Year's Day usually classified first, and Thanksgiving Dinner somehow not being classified as a party). The Super Bowl also spawns the single busiest day for delivered pizza, although it may not be the biggest day for consuming pizza. The biggest day for eating pizza may be Thanksgiving Wednesday--which may be the single largest pizza day (combining delivered and eaten in-restaurant), and Thanksgiving Friday, which may be the day for the most pizza eaten at restaurants (for a guilt-and-cleanup free meal eaten out, especially by "the kids" who are back from college that day.
We've also just missed Valentine's day which is the busiest day for florists (although flower markets have their busiest day at some point before this, and the flower cutting would occur even further back). Valentines is by far the busiest day for marriage proposals (an estimated 10% of annual proposals are made on a day representing just 0.27% of the year).
The question of what the busiest day is for restaurants depends on the type of restaurant and the measure of business. As noted above, pizza restaurants are busiest on either side of Thanksgiving and for Super Sunday, and given the unromantic aura of pizza, the parlors experience a slow day on Valentines Day.
Valentines is good for a particular type of restaurant ("white tablecloth" restaurants) and a particular size of party (two). In this, it should be the busiest day for most tables turned, but not necessarily dinners served or dollars sold--a measure that favors the family-sized parties and brunch-or-dinner nature of Mother's Day.
Valentines day is also the busiest day for private detectives who are hired to trail unfaithful partners on the one day of the year on which they must be seen with both their #1 and #2 amours.
And, sadly, that brings us to mid-to-late February, when Divorce lawyers--already busy from a New Year's Resolution surge--are made doubly busy because of the impetus given by the evidence uncovered on the 14th/15th by those busy private detectives.
Part of what makes a particular day the busiest can be this layering of factors--not only where attorneys busy from New Years (and they stay busy through March), but on February 15 a second peaking factor kicks in--fresh evidence.
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