IT was a budget Valentine! That was what two Little India florists described this year’s Valentine’s Day celebration when they were asked for their views.
Yes Kay Enterprise florist D. Kalpana said bussines for this year’s Valentine was quite slow compared to the previous years.
“Single stalk of roses, flower bouquets as well as bouquets with confectionery items normally would be sold like hot cakes on Feb 14.
“But this year we sold more single roses than the bouquets. Perhaps, couples were celebrating it in a simple manner.
“As people are affected economically during this movement control order (MCO), the usual way of celebrating Valentine has slightly changed. I reckon more people had opted to purely sending their ‘wishes’ rather than splash on lavish gifts,” said Kalpana.
She added that due to the MCO, most of the restaurants did not provide the services for Valentine’s Day celebration, resulting in fewer number of bouquet pre-orders.
“Usually, restaurants would come up with Valentine’s Day special menu as well as the setup for a romantic dine-in whereby they would be using flower bouquets.
“This time round, that was not possible as restaurants can only operate till 10pm, but couples prefer to celebrate it late night.
“We used to receive quite a number of pre-orders for bouquets one week earlier (before Feb 14), ranging from RM35 to RM115, but this year we only received one,” said Kalpana, adding that walk-in customers were relatively low too.
For Gopal, a 48-year-old sales assistant at Rauf Florist, single roses were still a ‘hit’ despite the drop in bussines by 30 to 40 percent during Valentine’s Day.
“Single roses priced at RM12 received good response from the public but bouquets were not that popular this time as everyone’s livelihood has been affected.
“We sold around 50 single roses but last year we managed to sell about 70 stalks.
“Apart from that, we also sell flower garlands and a variety of flowers. But ever since the MCO was implemented in March last year, we have seen a decline in sales of these items,” said Gopal.
Story & Pix by Tanushalini Moroter