Valentine's Week is Big Week for Chocolate and Sparkling Wine

The recession isn't going to keep people away from chocolate. A study did find that consumers will be spending less on Valentine's Day this year but Valentine's week is still a very big week overall for sales of chocolate and sparking wine. Here are some Valentine chocolate facts and trends from a Nielsen Company report (PDF).

• 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. On a total candy basis, consumers will purchase more than $448 million during Valentine's week.
• More than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy will be sold during Valentine's week. By comparison, nearly 90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week.
• Lovebirds aren't necessarily early birds, with February 13 - the day before Valentine's Day - as the top total candy and chocolate candy buying day in February.
• Bargain shoppers are out the day after Valentine's Day with February 15 as the second most important chocolate candy buying day in February.
• Valentine's week is one of the top weeks for sparkling wine sales, with more than $8.6 million in sales, trailing only Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. More than 881,000 bottles of sparkling wine will be sold during the holiday week.

Retailers charge more for sparkling wine during the Valentine's Day period. Nielsen says sparkling wine also has its highest average pricing during Valentine's week at $9.75 (750 ml) which is about 5% more than other peak sales weeks.