RALEIGH, N.C. — It’s Valentine’s Day and, according to the National Retail Federation, the average consumer expects to spend about $185 on gifts this year. That's nearly $8 more than the average amount spent over the last five years.

Surging restaurant and chocolate prices are playing a role that rising cost.

What You Need To Know

  • The average consumer expects to spend about $185 on gifts for Valentine’s Day this year

  • Flowers are among the holiday’s top three gifts with about 39% of people planning to buy them

  • Tierra George, the owner of TG Floristry, says they plan months in advance for the holiday

  • George also believes it’s incredibly impactful for the entire community when people buy from local shops

According to the January consumer price index, the price of food consumed at restaurants is up 5% year over year. That’s a complete reversal from last year when it was cheaper to dine out.

Additionally, cocoa prices are surging so high that even the biggest chocolate makers are struggling to stay profitable. Climate issues in west Africa, where more than 60% of the global cocoa production is, are damaging crop yields and causing prices to soar.

Meanwhile, flowers are among the holiday’s top three gifts with about 39% of people planning to buy them for their valentine, according to the NRF.

 

Tierra George, the owner of TG Floristry in downtown Raleigh, says they plan months in advance for the holiday and she believes it’s incredibly impactful for the entire community when people buy from local shops.

“We moved into this space about two and a half years ago. But we've been in business for about five years,” George said.

Valentine’s Day is like the Super Bowl for the flower industry.

“On what we do a day, we probably receive maybe four to five times that in this period,” George said. “I think that we have pretty steady day-to-day sales, but Valentine's Day, Mother's Day definitely kind of blows those out of the water by a long shot.”

Within the last year, George has made flower arrangements for some pretty impressive people, including President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, as well as Gov. Roy Cooper and musical artist Lizzo.

She credits the success of her business to holding community workshops centered around the values they’re committed to.

“A lot of the farms that we do use, they're either going to be small farms, we use a lot of like BPIOC-owned farms and things like that. All of our farms are like woman owned. So that's something that we definitely like kind of pride ourselves off of there,” George said.

George says locally-owned shops might not be at the same price point as big box stores. However, she believes when people choose to support small businesses like hers, they’re investing in something much bigger.

“I think we're trying to do something good. And so I think that any support that we receive in trying to do that, I think that we can do more good than, you know, even more,” George said.

George says she also plans for last minute orders as well as orders that come in tomorrow, the day after Valentine’s Day. She also says that good quality fresh cut flowers should last about two weeks as long as you change the water every couple of days and trim the stems.