Valentine’s Day Candy: The Good And The Bad

On Valentine’s Day, it’s customary to get your special someone something sweet, and candy companies take notice of this. More candy companies than ever are showing their Valentine’s Day spirit this year. There are heart-shaped chocolates and candy with lovey messages on the wrapper. Russell Stover has a whole line of Valentine’s Day candies just for this special occasion. On Russell Stover.com, there are numerous pages of chocolates including gift baskets of assorted chocolates. Channing Tatum is even getting into the loving mood as he recently fed candy hearts to a random girl on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Entertainment Weekly posted the video and while he may have misread one of the hearts, it was a very nice way to make someone’s day better. The girl seemed to be a bit embarrassed, but mostly in awe of the fact that she had met Channing Tatum on her way home from school. Everyone loves to fall in love in February, and yet it seems to be the norm to put off shopping for Valentine’s Day until the day before.

While we all love to get Valentine’s Day candy, we almost always forget who is getting the big payout. Many candy companies are starting to notice that Valentine’s Day sales are not as big as other holidays such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. According to Go Knoxville, many big name companies are trying to get people to buy more chocolates by targeting different groups of people. Instead of making candies for people to give to their significant other, companies are making Valentine’s Day candy to give to friends and family. By doing this, they are opening up an opportunity for people to buy more candy and hoping their customers will think about it before February 13th, which is when a majority of people go out and gift shop for this special day. Some candy companies are accepting that there isn’t a lot of time to sell for Valentine’s Day and have come up with a way to sell the same chocolates and candies without the theme. Many companies are simply putting a Valentine’s Day themed sleeve on the chocolates. Then on February 15th they remove the sleeve from leftover merchandise making the chocolates appropriate for any occasion. This not only saves the company money, but makes it easier for them to determine how much of their product to give a Valentines Day theme.

While candy companies have a hard time figuring out how to market their merchandise and exactly how much to produce, many people have their own stress surrounding Valentine’s Day. We often spend the time leading up to Valentine’s Day wondering who we will spend the day with and if we will actually get that one-on-one date with our crush. Then when we have a date planned, we stress about what to get them. But there’s no reason to stress here. You can find Valentine’s Day chocolates for less than $5 if you go to the right place. When it comes to a special someone, you don’t need to go over your budget. Many stores have deals that will make your significant other a very happy. There’s no need to go to Godiva or any other high end chocolate store. If this is your first Valentine’s Day with that special person, there is no reason to spend more than ten dollars on the person – after all, it is Valentine’s Day, not Christmas! Walmart has a Hershey’s heart-shaped chocolate box for $5. With this information, why would you go to Godiva and spend $35 on a similar box??? Having a plan on how much to spend on Valentine’s Day helps keep you from overspending on chocolates that will be gone in a couple of days, leaving you money leftover to – hopefully – spend on a second date with that crush!

(Photo by Matthew Mead/ AP Images)