Calgarians spending, but not as much, this Valentine’s Day

You might not be able to put a price on true love but for many, there’s an awful lot of pressure to make bold, pricy gestures for Valentine’s Day, and this year is no exception.

While buying groceries or gas for your significant other may not be the most romantic gesture, it’s not insignificant.

With inflation hitting Albertans from every angle, some Calgarians are opting to do Valentine’s Day a little differently this year.

Ruhee Ismail-Teja, with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, anticipates a trend similar to what was seen at Christmas — steady traffic, but lower spending than previous years.

“A lot of businesses are bracing for lower value of each transaction because people are trying to monitor their spending so a lot of people are being more mindful,” she said. “They’re certainly going out and the impact to businesses will matter a little bit more.”

However, she says Valentine’s spending is still making a huge impact on the overall economy this year.

“Valentine’s Day impacts the Canadian economy to the tune of about $40 million, that’s very significant for our economy and an outsized amount of that is on things like florists, restaurants, jewelry store, candy stores — they see a pretty uptick this time of year related to that,” Ismail-Teja explained.

She adds that the boost in business goes beyond one day for the industries that also happen to face the most economic uncertainty.

“With Valentine’s Day being on a Wednesday, there’s an opportunity for businesses to benefit from both weekends on either end of it, and in some cases that will really will help businesses to see higher traffic on not just one day or not just one weekend, but two weekends,” she explained.