Why Atlanta is a top 15 city for Valentine’s Day

Money can’t buy you love, or so the Beatles would have you believe.

According to financial website WalletHub, we shell out more than $21.8 billion each year to show our love to those in our lives. That makes Valentine’s Day the third priciest holiday for U.S. consumers.

But you don’t need to sweat the day if you live in Atlanta. To determine the best cities for Valentine’s Day, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated cities across four key dimensions: safety, budget and activities, gift accessibility, and weather forecast. Their sample considers only the city proper in each case and excludes cities in the surrounding metro area.

The four dimensions were evaluated using 14 relevant metrics, each graded on a 100 point scale, with 100 being the best.

Atlanta ranked No. 15 for recipients of Cupid’s arrow, with 63.23 points. The city’s best showing was in gift accessibility, ranking No. 6.

Within that dimension, Atlanta was:

18th – Chocolate shops per capita

Sixth – Jewelry stores per capita

Seventh – Florists per capita

Seventh – Greeting-card stores and gift shops per capita

“Everyone should remember that Valentine’s Day is really about love and connection, not about what you buy or where you go,” said Michal Strahilevitz, with the marketing department of Saint Mary’s College of California. “The quality of attention and appreciation that you give someone will matter far more than what you are doing that day or where you are doing it.”

Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday this year, and Cara Peters, a professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at Winthrop University, said that makes it the perfect day to watch church services online with the one you love.

“That being said, I believe the pandemic has blurred time and space for many of us,” she added. “Whereas we used to travel to work or attend school in a physical location, Monday through Friday from 8-5 p.m., that is no longer the case for many people. Thus, I think the celebration of Valentine’s day on a Sunday will be like any other day of the week for many consumers.”