Valentine’s Day is becoming a heartbreaker for retailers.
For the second time in four years, Americans are spending less on Valentine’s Day, with fewer of them even planning to celebrate it.
Consumers this year will cut their V-Day spending on crushes, spouses and family members by 7 percent, to $136.57 on average, according to a new survey by the National Retail Federation.
Just 54 percent are planning to honor the day, down a percentage point from last year, the NRF found. Total spending is expected to decline 8 percent to Safirbet $18.2 billion.
All this is great news to Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the renowned relationship and sex therapist.
“It’s not the question of how much money or the cards people get,” Dr. Ruth told The Post. “It’s the attention.”
The largest drop in romantic spending was during the recession when Valentine’s Day spending dropped by 18 percent to $14 billion in 2009, NRF spokeswoman Ana Serafin said.
“We are seeing that people are celebrating the day on other days besides the 14th,” she said.
So are Americans are less romantic or are they revolting against commercialism?
“I’m not surprised that Valentine’s Day has become a holiday in which people say ‘I don’t need to spend,’” said Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail. “There is a mindset now that says ‘let’s celebrate our time together.’”
It’s not that Americans are cheap or worried about their financial health, according to WSL, which found in a November survey that Americans’ feelings about their financial security has increased 8 percentage points to 41 percent from 2014 to 2016.
“We’ve seen a pushback on spending money on things they don’t value,” Corlett added.
To that end, among the most popular gifts are “experiences” such as tickets to a concert or sporting event, a gym membership or an outdoor adventure, according to NRF, which polled 7,591 consumers from Jan. 4 to Jan. 11.
Dr. Ruth’s best advice for couples is to give each other a “wonderful massage without it leading to sex…just hugging and kissing. It will last long after Valentine’s Day,” she promises.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
