Shelling it out For The Ones We Love
Valentine’s Day gift-giving is projected to hit a record-setting pace this year, whether the means of expression is clothing, jewelry or a more novel approach to saying “I love you.”
Flowers – roses especially – and dinner at some point over the course of the four-day weekend are ‘givens’ for the Valentine’s Day observance, but indications are that shoppers plan to go further.
The average person in the U.S. plans to spend $126.03 this year celebrating Valentine’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2012 Valentine’s Day survey.
That would be an 8.5 percent increase over last year’s $116.21 in spending and the highest in the 10-year history of the survey. Overall spending for the holiday is expected be $17.6 billion. “Valentine’s Day is the biggest one-day holiday of the year, and it takes us a lot of preparation to be ready for it,” said David Edwards, owner of Chapin Flowers and Gifts. Based on increased economic optimism in the past few months, “I expect it to be good, with sales up over the past few years.”
