Valentine’s Day is basically the Super Bowl for retail stores. Florists, jewelers and chocolatiers will be rushing to fill in orders, take calls and serve customers eager to get the perfect gift for their partner.
Although stores will be open on the holiday, which falls on Wednesday, Feb. 14, shopkeepers advise avoiding the annual madness on the actual day and instead order or shop ahead of time.
For Tim Cummings, the store owner of The Flower Box in Springfield, the best time to order a bouquet for your beloved is as “early as possible,” he said.
“If you wait until the 14th, it’s going to be very hectic and you may or may not be able to get through to a florist,” Cummings told MassLive. “Not because they don’t want to help you, it’s just because [there are] so many people all at once and everyone wants it at the same time.”
For patrons looking to buy a nice bouquet for their partner on Valentine’s Day, Cummings advises them to be patient.
“As long as you are patient and flexible, that’s the biggest thing and the third thing is to get your order in ASAP,” he said. “I would say at a drop-dead minimum, you want it a couple of days ahead of time, just to be sure you get kind of what you’re looking for.”
But it’s not just flower shops that’ll be swamped with orders on Valentine’s Day — chocolate shops will be, too.
Tiffany Lee, the manager at Beacon Hill Chocolates in Boston, said she expects to see a long line of customers on the days before and on Valentine’s Day.
“It will be a long, busy day. It’s going to be a high volume,” Lee told MassLive. “People will be waiting in line [for] probably a good 30 minutes.”
Lee suggests customers order chocolates as soon as possible before Valentine’s Day to escape the line.
“I think people don’t realize that chocolates can last quite a while, so a lot of people think that they have to get it on the day before or the day of Valentine’s,” she said. “But, you can definitely get chocolates ahead of time.”
Lee also suggested customers buy bagged items such as chocolate-covered Oreos, milk chocolate and dark chocolate over the weekend to avoid them being out of stock by Valentine’s Day.
If you missed the unofficial deadline to order chocolates or flowers, you can still pick up a fancy new piece of jewelry for your partner at a local jeweler, if you don’t mind dropping a couple of Benjamins.
Mark Fitzpatrick, the manager of Sharfmans Jewelers in Worcester, said he’s already sold several pieces of jewelry in advance for Valentine’s Day.
A customer could purchase an engagement ring on the spot if it fits, Fitzpatrick said.
But if a piece of jewelry has to be custom-made, then on average you’d have to put your order in at least three weeks in advance, he said.
“If it’s rather ornate and everything else, it would probably be too late,” Fitzpatrick said.
