This Valentine's Day is expected to be a big year for retail sales, and with just a few days to go, local shops are busy preparing.
The National Retail Federation reports that Americans who plan to celebrate are expected to spend an average of nearly $193 per person.
Candy, greeting cards, and flowers are the top three most popular gifts, according to the retail group.
Flower Carriage in Santa Maria is already working on orders for Tuesday and has had a steady stream of people coming in and buying flowers, teddy bears, and candies.
Owner Susana Cardel says the red rose is still the staple flower for Valentine's Day and they are stocked up and ready for the holiday.
"We are more supplied this time. We have more chocolates, more teddy bears, more balloons, more red roses -- number one in sales -- but we have all colors. We have rainbow roses as well. So we are doing a lot of nice gift sets this year," Cardel said.
At Gina's Piece of Cake in Santa Maria, strawberries are a big seller for Valentine's Day. This year, however, strawberries are a little harder to come by because of the recent rainy weather.
While the bakery will have its display cases full of products on Valentine's Day, owner Gina Martin suggests those interested in giving their loved ones a sweet treat put in an order ahead of time.
Martin says they tend to see more men than women shopping on Valentine's Day.
"Most of the time it's kind of 50/50, but on Valentine's Day, it's a lot of gentlemen coming by for their treats," Martin said. "We stay busy all day long and we just ask customers to be patient because there will be a line of people."
Gina's Piece of Cake is located at the Santa Maria Town Center mall, but they will be opening a new location in Old Town Orcutt at the former The Shift Restaurant location on East Clark Ave.
"It's going to bring a lot of new things that I haven't quite experienced yet because we'll be baking everything here and transporting it to the new location and we will have an oven there for cookies and smaller items like muffins and stuff, but the bulk of our baking will still be done here at this location," Martin explained.
They hope to be open in Orcutt by mid-March.
