Accordiing to a report by WGRZ Channel 2 this week:
More than half of consumers — 55% — plan to celebrate the holiday this year. The NRF reports:
- $14.5 billion is expected to be spent on gifts for significant others
- $4.5 billion on gifts for other family members
- $2.4 billion on friends
- $2.2 billion on classmates and teachers
- $1.7 billion on co-workers
- And a record $2.1 billion on pets
Candy remains the most popular gift, with 56% of shoppers planning to buy sweets. Flowers and greeting cards follow at 41%, while 39% plan an evening out and 25% will purchase jewelry. Jewelry accounts for the highest total spending at $7 billion nationwide.
"Christmas is the biggest season for us, but Valentine's Day, the day before Valentine's Day, is generally the biggest single day of the year,” manager Andrew Beecher said. “It's a bit more of a last minute holiday. People start the Christmas shopping in November, but Valentine's Day is really this week is, this is the busiest week of the year."
“We start before Christmas is over, we start making hearts in December,” Beecher said. “Almost everything here is done by hand. It's a lot of labor to get everything ready in time for Valentine's Day.”
“Personalized hearts with the names so they'll get that for their kids, their spouse, their friends, family, parents, grandkids, everybody,” Beecher said. “Sponge candy is also always a big seller. Truffles are really big this time of year. Anything heart themed in red.”
“That's the best part. We're selling chocolate, right? It's such an easy thing to keep doing every day, we're just in the business making other people happy,” he said. “I find that every day at work, I have a big smile on my face anytime I'm talking with the customer, because they're always happy to be in there, and it's always fun to serve them, because you get to just make their day better.”
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