It looks like cupid isn't completely recession proof as Valentine's Day
draws close. In New York, florists say flowers sales are wilting, but
chocolates and sex toys seem to be weathering the storm.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 12, 2009) REUTERS-
Love conquers all -- sometimes. Valentine love birds are expressing
a mixed reaction to the slumping U.S. economy. In New York City, while
chocolate and sex toy sales appear to be holding strong, flower sales are
wilting this Cupid season.
"Seasons - A Floral Design Studio" - a flower shop in midtown
Manhattan - has been around for 20 years and its owner Gerald E. Palumbo says
he's experienced his share of ups and downs. And yet Palumbo insists this
year's Valentine season is the worst he's ever seen. He says sales have been
hit by the widespread reluctance towards lavish gestures as well as by the
fact that Valentine's Day this year falls on a weekend and not a weekday.
Palumbo projected a 50-60% drop in flower sales at his shop from the
previous year. Last year, he received about 200 flower delivery orders for
Valentine's Day while this year he had received only 12 delivery orders by
12th February. He thinks the flower delivery orders might go up to about 100
by 15th February but he isn't entirely convinced of even that.
"This year our staff is reduced by half of what we typically have.
We reduced our quantities of flowers, we've had by at least 50% and in the
case of roses we've even reduced that even more - we've reduced it by about
60%. So, we're prepared for doing a lot less business this year. And just by
seeing what's coming in as pre-orders, we can get a sense of what's going to
happen and it doesn't look good," said Palumbo.
Palumbo's minimum for a bouquet delivery is 65 USD and there is no
upper limit.
A borough away from the Seasons studio, "Cocoa Bar" in
Brooklyn seems to be having a better Valentine's season. The owners are seeing
a robust demand for couple reservations at their wine and chocolate bar on
Valentine's Day and are also expecting chocolate sales to be the same as last
year or perhaps just marginally lesser.
Two days before Valentine's Day, the brothers who own the store -
Masoud and Bahman Soltani - originally from Iran, brought in a range of
special chocolates for Valentine's Day. This included heart shaped hand-made
Valentine chocolates that sell 29 USD a piece. In 2008, the brothers would
have charged 32 for the same chocolate but this year they are making a price
concession for their more careful customers. Concessions aside, they insist
they are doing pretty well despite the souring economy.
"Yes, people are still interested in chocolate and my sales are
still the same as last year despite the fact that people are cutting down in
so many things including myself. I am not shopping a lot of different things
but in certain things you don't want to cut down and chocolate is one of
them," said Masoud Soltani.
According to The Nielsen Company, consumers are expected to purchase
more than 345 million in chocolate candy during Valentine's week, accounting
for 5.1 percent of chocolate candy's annual sales.
At Cocoa Bar, 27-year-old Jamie Moore tried some chocolates and later
said that she was feeling quite positive about Valentine's Day. She works as a
nanny and says that she's actually had a lot more work recently.
"Actually I'm doing better, because you're always going to need
people to watch your children no matter how the economy is going. People are
having to get second jobs, so that means I get more work taking care of your
children. So, I could actually splurge this Valentine's Day if I wanted
to," Moore said.
On the other hand, fellow New Yorker Asi Mimon plans to stay at home on
Valentine's Day with his wife instead of going out.
The National Retail Federation's 2009 Valentine's Day Consumer
Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that consumers
plan to spend an average 102.50 on Valentine's gifts and merchandise, down
from last year's 122.98 per person. They project Valentine's Day spending to
reach about 14.7 billion in 2009. When it comes to gifts, the survey finds
that most people will still buy traditional favorites but will spend less.

The survey was done by polling about 8000 consumers. Explaining the
findings of the survey, Ellen Davis, Vice President, National Retail
Federation, said that they were not seeing a lot of indulgences this year.

"We're seeing people make very careful spending decisions to show
the ones they love how much they mean to them. But we're not seeing lavish
gifts of jewelry and huge bouquets of flowers. We're seeing more subtle, small
reminders - whether that's a card, a box of chocolates, a small bouquet, an
evening out but really small personal touches that also come with a pretty
nice price tag," said Davis.
Davis added that this is the first year that the National Retail
Federation has seen a decrease in Valentine Day spending since they started
tracking the holiday in 2002. She also said that every single traditional
Valentine category was down except for greeting cards.
But there's another silver lining to the gray Valentine clouds this
year. Sex toy stores seem to be doing better in sales. Babeland, a high-end
sex toy store in the fashionable Soho area of Manhattan is seeing about a 15%
increase in sales compared to last year.
They have lined up special Valentine themed sex kits such as
"Share the love" priced at 55 USD. But according to Babeland
co-founder Claire Cavanah, where the company is really seeing an increase in
sales is in the category of the more expensive sex toys - those priced above
125 USD such as the We-Vibe that sells for 130 USD.
"There's a sort of nesting instinct that happens when things get
scary outside of your house and so you want to sort of hunker down and connect
with your partner or with yourself and have a sort of stay-in sort of date
time instead of spending so much money. So, it's sort of like cheap thrills
but they are not necessary cheap toys that we are selling. So, it's kind of
interesting. But I think we are benefiting from a certain kind of
anxiety," said Cavanah.
Cavanah is expecting 100 couples at Babeland's Naughty Valentine's Day
Wine & Chocolate Bash at their Soho store on February 15th. Each person
attending the party will be paying 40 USD.