Valentines Day, it used to be so simple.
Okay, well maybe not originally –since the original celebration of the holiday of St. Valentine involved leading a revolt against the Romans by marrying soldiers on the battlefield (Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry at the time because it was considered bad for morale). A traditional celebration also entails being sentenced death and miraculously restoring the sight of your jailer’s blind daughter.
(A thought to keep in mind, perhaps, the next time you want to complain about having to remember to buy flowers.)
Despite a rather flashy introduction to the world however, Valentine’s Day settled into being a mostly simple holiday – heart shaped Whitman’s Sampler, flowers, cards and maybe a nice dinner out somewhere.
Or at least it was for a while.
But as the holiday evolved from being about martyrdom and miracles, to a celebration of chocolate and carnations, it seems to have made another evolutionary leap forward. What was once a simple Hallmark holiday has grown into a $19.2 Billion annual event for American consumers.
And like most big retail events, it offers consumers a unique opportunity to buy some amazing things.
Including the time-tested method of going over the top.
This year, for instance, for the bargain price of around $140,000 USD, those who go big or go home can spend a romantic weekend at the Shangri-La Hotel Qaryat Al Beri in Abu Dhabi.
For that price tag, one would get a Presidential suite; rooftop dinner complete with caviar, oysters, and serenade; a Hublot watch and Dior couture piece that the couple will swap in a gift exchange; (a personal shopper is on call to help pick out the pieces); and an oh so romantic nocturnal helicopter ride.
For those with more eccentric – and less expensive tastes closer to home – couples can also pay to name a pair of hissing cockroaches after themselves or purchase the one they love jewelry made from each other’s hair and teeth.
Okay, so maybe it’s a little easy to get disheartened during Valentine’s Day by the excessive or the just excessively creepy displays of affection. But if one takes a step back from the holiday – mostly the news is heartwarming, even if some of it is also kind of head-scratching as well. PYMNTS has it all here, because you, our readers, are our Valentine’s.
As the economic thaw of 2015 is unfreezing, more capital of consumers – who are more likely to be working, more likely to have had a raise and who are certainly paying less for fuel than the have been for the last 5 years – Valentine’s Day retail is certainly feeling the love.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Valentine’s Day spending will be up by 6.3 percent on average this year. As it turns out, 90 percent of celebrants plan to get their special someone a special something, and on average they are going spend about $88 dollars on it. That’s up from the on average $74 people were spending last year. And while spouses and significant others do collect 61 percent of the gift budget, the average celebrant will spend an additional 54.31 on friends, family members, and – yes we’re serious – pets. That collective 142.31 is up from vs. $133.91 in 2014.
Online shoppers are feeling the love to the tune of an additional $57.02 worth of gift-related affection. The 25 percent or so of shoppers who plan to do all their Valentine shopping online plan to spend an average of $199.33.
And consumers aren’t the only ones feeling the love this year. Whomever said corporations are heartless has obviously never had a multinational coffee chain help them find their soul mate.
Good news, 2015 is the year they will have their chance.
Starbucks hosted a “World Largest Starbucks Date” event yesterday (February 13) which featured, romantic music, special menu pairings and special photo props (see photo) where couples can share photos of their “Starbucks’ date.”
PYMNTS caught up with some local Starbucks employees in Plymouth, Massachusetts as they set up for the event.
“We are totally excited about this,” one employee noted. “We have ice breakers, we have mood lighting and honestly I don’t think I can overstate how committed we are to being referenced in someone’s wedding speech one day.”
This event will not only be in the US, it will be held in markets such as Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, China and South Korea.
“There’s no better time to celebrate meaningful moments of connection, and encourage new ones than during Valentine’s Day,” says Sharon Rothstein, Starbucks global chief marketing officer.
While it is easy to get intoxicated with all the unbridled enthusiasm for love, there are certain details about how consumers spend during Valentines that are, well, unexpected.
For example, since it is often said that love is a young man’s game, it is not too shocking that Millennials aged 18-24 are most likely to mark the occasion, with over 60 percent planning on doing something, while slightly more than 40 percent those above 65 report caring about the holiday.
What is may come as something of a surprise is who, or, what millennials are celebr
ating Valentines day with. While 21 percent of them plan to buy their pet a Valentines gift – those aged 18-24 will be spending the most on them (a little over $40 on average).
Another surprising piece of data paired with a rather unsurprising looking piece of data? Flowers are a leading choice for Valentines gift this year. Though candy held it’s number one spot for,with 53.2 percent of consumers planning to purchase. Flowers at 37.8 percent plan to purchase flowers.
The strange thing?
Only 18.7 percent of respondents planned to visit a florist. So where are the other 80 percent of flower givers going? Given that the entire northern United States is frozen solid at the moment, PYMNTS.com has to assume that the remainder are getting their flowers from grocery stores, gas stations and online.
(On a related note. Do not get your Valentines Flowers at a gas station. If you do, odds are you will be spending Valentines Day alone – or, if you’re a millennial, with the dog you bought a superior gift for.)
Good news though – thanks to a combined efforts of ChangeTip, Newegg and BitPay the personality flaws that cause a person to purchase flowers for someone they love at a gas station and end up alone will be rewarded this year.
The Valentine’s Contest was simple – make a video that explains why it is you are alone.
Victoria van Eyk from ChangeTip noted , “We troll ourselves in our promotional video.”
They’ve teamed up with Newegg and BitPay to offer some fun prizes – with the grand prize being Newegg and BitPay will also weigh in on their favorite answer to be awarded the grand prize: 1 bitcoin (at bitcoin’s value on February 15) and a US$150 gift certificate to Newegg.
So single? Love bitcoin? Yeah there’s probably no connection between those two things, dont’ worry about it. And actually, one does not even have to be single to enter the contest – people who have improbably convinced others to love them, can offer videos about why they should be single.
So that’s all there is to love and commerce in 2015 – some sweet, some strange and some things a healthy mix of the two.
XOXO
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