• by Judy Warner , February 5, 2007

Whether it's a jump on Valentine's Day shopping or to assuage TV guilt, florists and jewelers enjoy buying surges over Super Bowl weekend.

Visa USA reported that a historic review of its cardholders' spending patterns showed that jewelry stores and florists saw a more than 30% increase during big game weekends in both 2005 and 2006 when compared to other weekends.

VISA USA's Wayne Best, senior vice president for business and economic analysis, speculates that consumers may either be getting "an early jump on shopping for the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday, or perhaps they're feeling guilty about spending a lot of time watching football and are planning peace offerings to their loved ones."

Traditionally, consumers have been known to spend more at supermarkets, wholesale club warehouses and electronics stores on Super Bowl weekend than they do on other weekends before and after the big game.

Purchase Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) in the U.S. totaled more than $7.2 trillion in calendar year 2006, according to the country's leading credit card issuer, with general-purpose payment cards capturing about one-third of that total.

Spending on Visa-branded credit, debit and prepaid products represented nearly 17 percent of total Purchase PCE. That means $17 out of every $100 spent by consumers was on a Visa-branded card.