Valentine's Day shopping is on the rise this year, according to the U.S. National Retail Federation, but the matter of who buys and who recieves remains unequal.

The average amount spent on Valentine’s gifts last year in the U.S. was $116.21 per person, while this year the average raised to $126.03.According to the NRF survey.

The survey also illustrated different spending tendencies overall, with men spending more than twice as much with an average of $168.74, and women averaging at $85.76.

One of the most popular gifts purchased on Feb. 14, is flowers; a survey by aboutflowers.com had Valentine’s Day ranked third overall in floral arrangement purchases, coming in behind Mother’s Day and Christmas.

Statistics from 2011 on aboutflowers.com showed that 23 per cent of adults purchased flowers or plants for Valentine’s Day, with 61 per cent of them being men and 39 per cent women.

The difference in many cases is planning.

Davis Khounnoraj of SOMA Chocolate on King Street West in Toronto has also observed a difference in shopping habits, “We’ve got the guys coming in today last minute,” he said. “The girls are planners.”

Steph Gorman, also of SOMA Chocolate said that despite their busiest holiday being Christmas, Valentine’s Day is a close runner up.

Gorman said that one of SOMA’s biggest sellers this time of year is a decorative lacey heart, which retails at $20. “They’re all handcrafted by our chocolate-makers,” she said.

Valentine's day chocolate truffles are also a bestseller at SOMA, made especially for the holiday. “One has toffee and marzipan, and the other is pomegranate flavour and has a tartness to it,” she said.

With little time left to buy something sweet for a sweetheart, Gorman said they're, “almost sold out of everything already."

See below for some images of chocolate making equipment and products at the Soma store in Toronto.
 

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