Hallmark finds market for Veterans Day cards after Sept.11
By Amy Shafer
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hallmark Cards Inc. twice experimented with selling Veterans Day cards, and twice decided the market wasn't there. But that was before the Sept. 11 attacks, and before Keri Olson made them a personal crusade.
Associated Press
Last Veterans Day, Olson wanted to get a card for her father, who fought in the Vietnam War.
A selection of Hallmark greeting cards designed for veterans. The company test-marketed such cards with lackluster response in 1985 and 1999, but has found a new demand in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I think with the events of Sept. 11, I began to understand all that he had sacrificed. I really wanted to tell him," she said.
Employed by Hallmark at its Kansas City headquarters the last two years, she knew they didn't make a specific card for that day. So she chose one that simply expressed appreciation and on Nov. 11 gave it to her father, who was in the Army and received a Purple Heart for combat wounds.
"When he got this card, he started crying and saying that no one had ever thanked him before," she said.
Olson, 33, set out to convince her company that making Veterans Day cards was a good idea. The company had found out otherwise in tests of the cards in 1985 and 1999, when sales proved sparse.
Hallmark agreed to give it another try.
The staff expected about 5,000 stores would want the cards when they became available earlier this year, said Hallmark spokeswoman Rachel Bolton. Instead, orders came in from more than 18,000 stores, and some have already ordered a second batch.
While precise information on sales is not yet available, they've been better than expected, the company said.
"Things had changed ... people were feeling different following 9/11," Bolton said.
