Valentine's Day is sweet for local business | News

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM ) -- Tuesday is Valentine's Day, the most romantic day of the according to some. And, for Sweetland Candies in Grand Rapids, it is the busiest time of the year as well.

John Naum, vice president of the store located at 5170 Plainfield NE, says the store will see about 700 customers a day, starting two days before Valentine's Day.

Monday afternoon customers packed the store, some stopping by on their lunch break, others before work, to buy sweets for their sweetie. Naum says his customers really get into the spirit of the occasion.

"It is probably one of our prettiest holidays, all the red and heart shapes.. It is very, very festive and it is very romantic," he said.

Char Sweat is one of those customers. She stopped in to buy a chocolate covered pretzel for her husband of 15 years.

"Yeah, it's just to show each other that you love each other. I definitely think it is one of those holidays that you just focus on your partner and not the rest of the family," said Sweat.

Naum says his 3 biggest sellers are turtles, truffles and seafoam.

"But everybody has their favorites and they come here because we will pack up anything in a box for you and you can pick out a special box," he said. "They don't have to buy the prepackaged stuff like they do in the big box stores. They can come in and get their personal favorites or the favorites of their special significant other and have it packaged special for them."

Naum says the store's biggest holiday season, money wise is Christmas. However, he says they see more foot traffic by far on Valentine's Day. Customers come shopping for gifts ranging in price to over $100 to just a couple of bucks.

He expects Tuesday to be insanely busy right up until 8:00 p.m.

"It is usually female customers early on because they plan ahead and at the last minute it is mostly men because they procrastinate," he said.