Consumers are expected to spend about $25.9 billion for Valentine’s Day this year on gifts, according to the annual survey released Jan. 25 by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That is higher than the $23.9 billion spent in 2022, which was one of the highest spending years on record.
In addition to cards, candy and flowers are popular items people are buying for the holiday, and local businesses that sell them are seeing an uptick in those stopping in to do their Valentine’s Day shopping.
Candy and other sweets are expected to be the most popular things to buy this year, and business is booming at area sweet shops in the days leading up to Feb. 14, including at Peterbrooke Chocolatier in Lake Sumter Landing.
Sarah Bowersox, co-owner of Peterbrooke in The Villages, said business picked for the holiday early last week and the momentum continued into the weekend.
“It’s doing extremely well, and we can definitely tell that The Villages is growing because we’ve seen a lot of new faces and the traffic flow is extremely heavy,” she said. “The shop is doing great.”
In fact, business for Valentine’s Day this year already is better than last year.
She said the store so far has made about 20 to 30 shipments for this Valentine’s Day, and Bowersox expected to make about 15 to 20 more over the weekend.
“It’s all hands on deck,” she said. “Everyone is working as much as they can that weekend into Valentine’s Day.”
To read the rest of the story in The Villages Daily Sun, click HERE.