Everyday is a special day with our loved ones and significant others, although February, 14, is just a little bit more romantic.
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Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday that has us gifting those special people in our lives with flowers, chocolate, jewellery and dinner.
When Fairfax Media spoke to The Meadow’s Irissa Knight earlier this week she said preparations for Valentine’s Day were going really well.
The Meadow launched their Valentine’s Day promotion on social media at the end of January, to give locals plenty of time to get thinking about pre-ordering those perfect flowers for their loved ones.
“We’ve had loads of orders.. which means people won’t miss out on the day,” she said.
When thinking of Valentine’s Day, one may think of red roses, but Ms Knight said they always try and encourage customers to be creative and personalise their gift for the person they’re buying for.
“Sometimes it can be a mix bouquet, natives, sunflowers…,” she said.
Ms Knight said it was nice to know that people are still appreciating flowers and flowers as gifts for Valentine’s Day.
“While they don’t last forever it’s nice to know people are still appreciating something while it’s alive,” she said.
Hundreds of millions of dollars is estimated to be spent by Australian’s this Valentine’s Day, with chocolate, accommodation and flowers some of the biggest purchases.
The figures, from IBIS World's senior industry analyst James Thomson, estimates an average of $43.61 will be spent per person nationally this year.
Accommodation was the biggest expense with $621.3 million estimated to be spent, followed by chocolate/confectionery at $132 million and flowers with $123 million.
People are estimated to spend $89.7 million on clothing and lingerie and $53.6 million on jewellery and accessories, closely followed by $52.7 million on dining.
It is estimated $19.9 million will be spent on greeting cards this year for the Valentine’s Day period.
Indulge on Macquarie owner Ngaire Davis was surprised by the $132 million figure estimated to be spent by Australians on chocolate/confectionary this year for the Valentine's Day period.
“That is a huge amount of chocolate,” she laughed.
“I don’t think people are eating as much chocolate as they used to.. So it’s nice that people still buy it for a special occasion”
Ms Davis said chocolate purchases for Valentine’s Day was normally a last minute thing.
“The last couple of days (before Valentine’s Day) gets really busy, but we do have a few people that get in early,” she said.
“It can be a mad panic (to buy chocolate).