I want to send Hallmark a card about grief, but can't find one

I want to send a greeting card to Hallmark. Perhaps one that says, "May the memories of those we've lost continue to shine brightly," with a photo of a closed Hallmark store behind it.

This is a conundrum: Two leading greeting card companies are making major cuts, which makes it difficult to find the appropriate greeting card to send them. It's like trying to send a telegram to announce that it's hard to send telegrams.

Perhaps I'll send something that says, "Grief lives where love lived first," written over the top of a bunch of greeting cards.

Here's what's happening: Hallmark Cards Inc. is changing the way it's doing business, a detail revealed by the Wall Street Journal just days before one of the biggest greeting card days of the year, Valentine's Day. (Valentine's Day is Friday! So start looking now for that box of chocolates or box of conversation hearts or start preparing that social media post about how you hate Valentine's Day.)

The WSJ article was prompted by the announcement that Schurman Fine Papers, which operates Papyrus retail stores and other entities, declared bankruptcy. American Greetings Corp., the owner of the Papyrus brand, will continue to sell cards in stores all across America. Just not Papyrus stores. They are going away, thanks to a lack of demand.

The greeting card slump is another victim of technology. Instead of sending cards, we now send texts. Often with emojis, allowing us to communicate in a similar way to cavemen: A picture of a word!

Or we post our greetings on social media. Facebook users see this every year when people post on their wall to celebrate their birthday. If you have Facebook, consider this: How many people post for your birthday? How many give you cards?

The result is a 13 percent drop in greeting card sales in the U.S. over the past five years. The plunge would be worse if not for the dramatic increase in the cost of purchasing cards–it's a drop in money, not number of cards.

Anyone who's purchased a greeting card in the past decade knows the drill.  You get the card, go to the check stand and then are told that it cost $7.99. For a card that's neither unique nor clever.

The result of the technology revolution is a slide for the greeting card companies, including Hallmark (which is owned by the Hall family–who knew? They founded the company 110 years ago and the company now also runs the Hallmark Channel and Crayola, the crayon maker).

The WSJ article  said Hallmark will continue to have stores, but will also bulk up its online offerings, including through the Hallmark app. Hallmark has also opened branches in such places as hardware stores ("Sorry you got hammered") and hospitals ("Congratulations on surviving your surgery").

As we see the decline of an American giant and as we approach another Valentine's Day, let's give Hallmark, Papyrus and other greeting card companies a boost: let's buy some cards.

If nothing else, you can follow my practice while my sons were growing up by getting a child a profane greeting card for their birthday (despite the fact that they rarely heard me utter even mild cuss words). It was funny every year!

If you don't want to buy a Valentine's Day card or a profane birthday card to give to a 6-year-old, consider getting one for Hallmark.

Maybe one that says, "Those we love stay forever in our hearts," with a picture of someone in a hardware store buying a birthday card.

Or maybe just text them the same thing.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.