It’s almost time for the most Hallmark of holidays—because you better at least get your partner a card if you want to survive the weekend. Along with our sister site, Offers.com, we conducted a survey asking people about their expectations, plans, and purchases for the day of romance, named after the patron saint of engaged couples, happy marriages, beekeepers, and warding off the plague. (So thanks for nothing in 2020, St. Valentine.)
In the survey, which ran for four days in January, we asked 1,080 people age 18 or older to let us know how they would be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year. The vast majority, 69.1%, are spending the day with their partner, or in combination with them and their kids (32.7%), friends (17.7%), or pets (15.1%). Another 15.4% said they’d be spending it alone.
Of those who will be with someone, many will exchange gifts (48.2%), and that could happen on either a night out, while having some kind of “experience” (30.1%), or especially on a night in (61.7%).
Where will those aforementioned gifts be coming from? The usual retail suspects, it turns out. Mainly, people will buy loved ones a gift from Walmart or Amazon, with each almost tied.
Click the tab above for planned spending, and you’ll also see that the bulk of people are cheapskates planning to spend less than $50—maybe those are the “card-only” spouses saving up for a divorce attorney.
So what are they spending that money on? Probably not what you want. When asked what their favorite V-Day gift would be, most people (29.2%) said chocolate, candy, or other food treats. Second to that is an experience, flowers/plants, or jewelry, each at around 15%. Then came clothing or beauty products (10%). Last: electronics (9.2%). Dudes, seriously, don’t buy your wife or girlfriend a FitBit for Valentine’s Day, you yutz.
That said, look again at the graphic at top—when we asked people how likely they were to buy a high-tech sex toy for the holiday, a majority 54.4 percent said they would be likely or very likely to get one. Teledildonics has come a long way.
But (in theory) Valentine’s Day isn’t just about purchases. It’s also about connection, and that’s something tech can always help with—especially in the middle of a pandemic quarantine. So we also asked whether people had any kind of virtual date planned. Only 15.6% said they had plans for such a thing. And of that group, most will be communicating via social messaging apps (39.9%). Another 31% said they’d do a video chat, so they must be not be sick of Zoom and Google Meet work meetings yet.
If you’re planning any big moves on Valentine’s Day, for what it’s worth, a full 60.6% of respondents said they were absolutely OK with the idea of a proposal for the holiday. Perhaps ascertain first whether your potential future spouse is in the 18.1% of those against a V-day proposal before you buy a diamond with your stimulus check.
Finally, we asked about the dating apps people without SOs would be using this Sunday. Tinder is the top choice (10.6%) followed by, of all things Facebook Dating at 10.4%. The rest of the top five were Plenty of Fish (7.8%), Match (6.7%) and OKCupid (6.1%). Maybe the best news is that a full 72.5% said they wouldn’t use a dating app at all. Whether that’s because they have a partner, are comfortable being alone, or simply smart enough to alone and safe through another month, we wish them a happy Valentine’s Day.
