Men traditionally have a week or two after the Super Bowl before they have to worry about flowers for Feb. 14. Not this year.
Thanks to the newly expanded NFL regular season, the Super Bowl falls on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
The nation’s florists are warning football fans who have only the Cincinnati Bengals and L.A. Rams on their radar this week not to wait until after the big game on Sunday.
“Most guys are not thinking about Valentine’s Day this year because of the Super Bowl,” said Chris Drummond, chair of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Society of American Florists.
Rising prices, supply chain issues and an expected last-minute run on roses will likely limit options for buyers who wait until Monday morning.
Retail prices for roses, tulips and hydrangeas have gone up about 20% nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020, the society said.
“Men are typically impulse buyers, not planners. They will go to work Monday, look at their calendars and realize it’s time to buy flowers,” Mr. Drummond said.
Feb. 13 is the latest the Super Bowl has ever been played, after the NFL expanded its regular season to 17 games.
The first Super Bowl was held on Jan. 15, 1967. The championship game was moved to late January in the 1980s and was played in January until 2002, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks pushed back the NFL schedule one week. It has been scheduled for February since 2004.
Mr. Drummond said many florists who have ordered and started arranging Valentine’s Day flowers will hold back a small inventory of roses for men who forget until the holiday is upon them.
Most order Valentine’s Day flowers for delivery instead of buying them in a store.
Mr. Drummond, who owns Penny’s by Plaza Flowers in Norristown, Pennsylvania, is offering a $10 discount to persuade customers to order flowers for delivery on Friday.
“My advice is to send the flowers early and make the holiday into a whole weekend,” he said. “Some florists who run out of flowers will just shut their phones off and close the delivery option on their websites on Feb. 13 and 14.”
Other florists’ incentives to order early include a free box of chocolates and three extra roses in a dozen. They don’t want the Monday rush to overwhelm their delivery trucks.
Alejandro Bethlen, CEO of The Bouqs online flower retailer, said he has launched a marketing campaign for early orders and is looking at expanded delivery options for Monday.
“Valentine’s Day is notoriously a last-minute holiday, but this year it lands as the day after the Super Bowl,” Mr. Bethlen said. “We are using targeted marketing, promotions and on-site messaging to push people to shop early so they can enjoy the game without having to worry about flowers the next day.”
Most florists have ordered their inventory ahead of time, but supply chain problems have driven up prices and the limited number of delivery vans will make it harder for them to ship flowers on the holiday.
“We started ordering early in December, and we’ve had to raise prices 30% to 40% because COVID has raised the cost of everything,” said Oscar Andrade, owner of Petals to the Metal Florist in Kensington, Maryland. “Roses used to cost 78 cents wholesale, and now they’re a dollar and forty cents, so it’s intense.”
The business has 30 drivers and about 20,000 red roses, he said.
“I hope I have enough,” he said. “It’s been super hard to keep enough employees because they’re either sick or afraid of catching COVID.”
Supply chain issues have resulted in shortages of fertilizer and parts for cargo planes in South America, which supplies the majority of flowers to U.S. retailers, as well as increased costs for containers and flower food.
“Many if not most of the flowers that Americans associate with festive occasions are not grown in the United States,” said Peter C. Earle, an economist at the libertarian American Institute for Economic Research in Massachusetts. “They come from places as diverse as Kenya, the Netherlands, Thailand and Ecuador, all of which involve long, complicated supply chains.”
In the U.S., a worker shortage in retail shops and among truckers has accompanied increased labor costs and a shortage of parts for the refrigerated tractor-trailers needed to haul flowers. Costs are also up for the floral preservatives and conditioners that florists use to make the blooms last longer, adding to the cost of roses in local shops.
That means lovers who wait to place orders on Super Bowl Sunday or on Valentine’s Day will have trouble getting red roses, white roses, tulips and hydrangeas.
Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said government vaccine mandates and “generous unemployment benefits” have limited the floral industry’s workforce and output.
“Draconian COVID-19 restrictions resulted in fewer flowers being planted during the pandemic, resulting in supply shrinking for this season,” Mr. Griffith said. “Meanwhile, demand is surging as people resume social activities — such as weddings, birthday parties and even funerals — that utilize floral arrangements.”
John D. Rosen, a consumer products expert who teaches economics at the University of New Haven, said flowers will be only one side of a double-whammy that hits Valentine’s Day shoppers. Hershey has announced price increases for its chocolates.
“Shop early, get your Valentine’s Day presents stocked up and ready, and be a hero on the big day when you are the only one who delivers candy to their loved one,” Mr. Rosen said.
