WISE COLUMN: Valentine spending on rise

  • Warren Wise
  • Posted: Monday, February 6, 2012 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Sunday, March 18, 2012 5:53 p.m.
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Cupid means business for retailers and restaurants.

A National Retail Federation survey found the average person who celebrates this Valentine's Day with gifts will shell out about $126, up 8.5 percent over last year and the highest in the survey's 10-year history. Total spending is expected to reach $17.6 billion.

Men will spend the most: about $169, or nearly twice as much as women, who will dish out an average $86.

Just over 50 percent of all shoppers will buy candy, 36 percent will opt for flowers, another 36 percent will take their significant others out for dinner, 19 percent will buy jewelry and 13 percent will pick out a card. Discount stores and department stores will see the bulk of buying, according to the NRF.

Going dark

Sears Hometown Store in Mount Pleasant will close by April 1. The 7,200-square-foot shop at 616 Coleman Blvd. in Moultrie Plaza opened in July 2010 but it never really took off with customers, said Jim Goble, who operates the dealer-run store with his father, Ed Goble.

"It hasn't ever picked up," the younger Goble said.

Everything in the store is on sale. Sears has another local Hometown Store in Moncks Corner.

Different niche

Niche Interiors, a boutique design firm at 163 King St. in downtown Charleston, has closed its retail showroom but will still offer client services, owner Matthew Bees said.

"It is almost impossible to offer clients impeccable design services while maintaining a retail operation, especially when one is a 'one man band' such as myself," he said.

He added that he could not say if he will continue to operate client services from the King Street location and that the best way to reach the company would be through the firm's website.

Snippet

Elite Barber Shop at 2183 Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant is on the move again. The barber shop is relocating to 1167 Basketweave Drive by Feb. 14 to make way for the proposed Cracker Barrel in front the Harris Teeter shopping center, said owner Joe Roberts. The shop moved two years ago from the Kmart center on Bowman Road.