Valentine's Day sales high for local stores
By Priscilla Castro
The Collegian
Valentine’s Day is a big day for businesses, local retailers said, with preparations and consumers shopping for flowers, candy and jewelry.
Flowers are a popular gift for the holiday, making it the busiest time of year for florists, followed by Mother’s Day, Sonia Sethi, owner of Conroy’s Flowers in Fresno, said. The biggest consumers of flowers are men, Sethi said. Women purchase flowers, but women who purchase flowers for Valentine’s Day are mainly younger women.
The average amount of money that spent on an arrangement is $60, Sethi said. The most popular floral arrangement that is purchased for Valentine’s Day is a dozen red roses. A dozen red roses costs about $79.99 for Valentine’s Day, which is a slightly higher compared to the rest of the year, because the growers raise their prices on roses after the first of February. Before the first of February the cost of roses was about $59.99 a dozen.
In floral shops there are also extra preparations involved to get ready for the big day. Conroy’s has an extra trailer that they use as an icebox to store arrangements in. Sethi said that the temperature in the trailer can not be any warmer than 78 degrees, and no cooler than 35 degrees. Those who work in flower shops also put in more hours during this time of year.
Conroy’s also hires additional employees for Valentine’s Day. The shop hired 20 temporary drivers, all Fresno State students, Sethi said. The driver positions were advertised on bulldogjobs.com. Temporary drivers are hired to make deliveries on Valentine’s Day and the day before.
Not every industry has the extra business hours that the florists have.
Crescent Jewelers, a Fresno jewelry store, does not extend their business hours for Valentine’s Day.
Alana Flores, assistant manager, said their biggest holiday of the year is Christmas, followed by Valentine’s Day. Their consumers for their busiest times are mainly men.
Crescent’s biggest seller for this Valentine’s season is the raspberry sapphire pendant, earrings, and ring, which sell for $199 each item, Flores said. Bracelets are not as popular for Valentine’s Day. One type of jewelry that is more common to buy for Valentine’s Day is the engagement ring.
“People like to do it because of the love theme,” Flores said.
Like the jewelry industry, the candy industry is also a busy place during Valentine’s Day, but it is also not their busiest time of year. Jeff Johnson, manager of Sees Candy, said Christmas is still the busiest time of year. There is about an equal amount of men and women who purchase candy, up until the day before Valentine’s Day. Men are the majority of customers the day before Valentine’s Day, Johnson said, because they tend to procrastinate. The nuts and chews assortment is the most popular type of candy that is purchased for Valentine’s Day.
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