February 14, 2006
DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter
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“Oh, geez, that's good. Now, I'll have them a day early,” McLure said, after realizing what day of the week St. Valentine's Day falls on this year. McLure balanced the multicolored tulips against royal purple poms and decided to pair the latter up with another bouquet of yellow poms.
The average American consumer will shell out $100.89 on Valentine's Day gifts, contributing to $13.7 billion nationwide for the industries involved in offering selections of greeting cards, flowers, candy and jewelry as well as restaurants, according to a National Retail Federation survey.
For men, floral purchases play a close second to greeting cards - 62 percent of consumers surveyed said they thought they would purchase at least a card this Valentine's Day.
Valley resident McLure joined the 52.3 percent of American men who plan to buy flowers for Valentine's, according to the survey. Less than 15 percent of women plan to make a floral purchase.
Jessica Kiehner and Tina Mobley, two employees at A Personal Touch Floral Shop, which is part of the Recluse Gardens Greenhouse, know for a fact that more men are ordering flowers than women.
Many of those men will be procrastinators who phone in their requests today and are surprised to find out the roses are gone, Mobley said.
“I've had some early birds who ordered flowers and then decided to get gift certificates for their significant other who gardens,” Mobley said, adding most of those men were retired.
“They're obviously smarter. They've been around for a few Valentine's,” Mobley said.
A few people have ordered potted plants, but most men stick with the traditional red rose, which symbolizes romance for most people, Kiehner said.
“Red roses. Red roses. Red roses. Men need to branch out more,” Mobley said.
Approximately 180 million roses were presented as gifts on Valentine's Day last year, according to NRF.
Other flower shops, like Scentsations, Blossoms & Bygones, Candy's Flowers and Flowers by Louise, each had a couple hundred orders on the books to be delivered and were still busy taking phone calls for more Monday.
“It's a real busy holiday, but we're also hiring extra employees, extra drivers and people are getting overtime, so I'm not sure if we come out ahead,” Flowers by Louise owner Louise Davis said.
“We've been delivering since last week of course, but today will be the biggest push,” she said Monday.
Other people prefer to present their significant other with something edible. According to the NRF survey, 47 percent of consumers planned to buy candy.
Sharon Sheehan, an employee at Verda's Cakes and Things, watched customers buy heart-shaped cookies by the dozens during the day before Valentine's.
“We make cookies and they go. We make more cookies and they go,” Sheehan said.
On Monday, Palmer resident Lori Snegirev snagged up nature's sweets - fresh strawberries at the Palmer Fred Meyer.
Snegirev's daughter's second-grade class will have a party, and she is supplying the fruit platter. Then, there's the cheese platter for daughter Haylee's kindergarten class Valentine's party. Not to mention, the Palmer mom will be lining up plans for her daughter Avi's 1-year birthday - Avi was born on Valentine's Day.
Although Snegirev will exchange greeting cards with her husband today, the more romantic and event will be Saturday when Snegirev's husband and a group of male friends cook up a prime rib dinner for their respective wives.
“They will be cooking a t 4 p.m. And the wives will join at 6 p.m. for dinner, dancing and games to be held at a friend's house,” Snegirev said.
“My husband even managed to arrange a baby sitter,” she said.
Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@
frontiersman.com.
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