Star Quality

It’s not enough to simply show up on Valentine’s Day with a heart-shaped box of chocolates … although it surely doesn’t hurt!

Roses are red, violets are blue. Valentine’s Day rakes in money from you.

Valentine’s Day is a big cash cow for the retail sector in the United States. The numbers are still coming in for 2026, but Americans spent $27.5 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation. That works out to more than $188 per household.

Where did all that money go? Florists prepared over 250 million roses for their customers. About 56% of Americans purchased candy. Restaurants made out well, too. Last year, full-service restaurants reported a 41% increase in Valentine’s Day diners compared to a normal day, according to the Toast online service. Take-out sales were up 46%.

And let’s not forget the pets. Americans spent $1.5 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets last year. In case you are curious, the average expenditure was $31 for dogs and $27 for cats¹ — definitive proof that dogs do better than cats at returning their...