Three weeks ago, there were boxes of chocolate piled in great mountains throughout Tina's Hallmark.

This week, those mountains are molehills of heart-shaped boxes, scattered across half a dozen shelves.

The transition was relatively quick.

"Men wait until the last minute to shop for Valentine's Day," says Tina Bruce, who has run Tina's Hallmark for 22 years. "The decision-making process is something they don't like to do."

There's a shock. It seems that men can never really get their act together; throw in a holiday that smacks of corporate love and the pressures of a lady waiting patiently at home for a surprise, and the stress is really on.

But regardless of what you think of it, Valentine's Day is a tradition that is not going anywhere. It's easy today to write it off as a twisted corporate celebration, especially if you're a loner with not much to do come early February. But its spirit is well entrenched, from its origins more than 1,700 years ago to the more recent American innovations that include the first commercial valentine in the 1840s and the origin of the NECCO candy hearts inscribed with messages just after the Civil War.

It's here, whether you like it or not. And let's be honest: If you want any action this year, you better get your butt in gear.

Luckily, there's help waiting in the wings.

"People tend to order everything in the last week," says Rachel Cristaudo, who has been running the 26-year-old Cristaudo's Bakery for about a year. "They don't get it until they need it. But I like [the holiday] more making stuff here than I do as an individual. It gives you a different view of the holiday. It makes people happy."

See. There are people ready to help the romantic procrastinator, but you have to go out and find them. At this late stage of the game, you can forget about that 24-karat rock. Same goes for all that exciting lingerie. In your rush, you'd just buy a bra with the wrong (and probably unflattering) cup size anyway. But think about the simple things. Candy. Cookies. Flowers. Cute little cards.

They're all there, waiting to be bought as quickly as you can pull out your wallet.

At Cristaudo's, preparation for Valentine's Day begins about a month ahead of time, but, as expected, most business slides in during these final days. Among the items up for grabs: the ever-popular heart-shaped cookies and their complementary heart-shaped cheesecakes, along with cakes that can be personalized with names or messages. All of this leads to a lot of time in the kitchen; Cristaudo says the bakery does about twice its normal business during the Valentine's Day season.

Sweets not up your alley? There's always the traditional bouquet of flowers, and have faith that the folks at the flower shop are used to dealing with last minute customers. At The Flower Box, owner Patty Proust says she is used to seeing lines of men stretching out the doors preceding the big day, and their orders are almost always for the same thing: roses. The undying symbol of love. In 2000, according to Census Bureau statistics, American florists produced $69 million worth of roses, and the demand grows ever higher.

Especially at the 11th hour.

"We're swamped today," Proust says. "I've got two calls on hold. It is a difficult holiday because the demand is so great."

So, if you've put it off until now, you have lines to wait in, cash to shell out and late-order deadlines to meet.

Is it really worth it, you ask?

Doesn't Valentine's Day take the top prize when it comes to fast food holidays?

"It's fun to see people when they get their flowers," says Katherine Watkins, who has been arranging flowers at The Flower Box for about eight years. "It's something special."

Or, as Bruce puts it, it's just a tradition that's been misconstrued over time.

"Most of the public think Valentine's Day was started by Hallmark," she says, "but it was really started by a guy who made chocolate."