This Week in Retail: Valentine’s Day and Fashion Week

If the post-holiday blues and inclement weather were affecting your mood or your retail business, the combination of Valentine’s Day on Saturday and President’s Day the following Monday could offer a reprieve. The National Retail Federation is predicting consumers will spend a record $29.1 billion on Valentine’s Day, with gifts for platonic relationships such as friends and co-workers driving the uptick.

Here’s what else is going on in retail this week:

In industry events: The semiannual New York Fashion Week is kicking off on Friday. The event features more than 50 runway shows with dozens of brands on display, such as Ralph Lauren and Coach, both of which have reportedly defied the slowdown in luxury spending by focusing on more affordable options while competitors hiked prices. The show comes just weeks after luxury retailer Saks Global declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pulled out of its partnership with Amazon due to a lack of participation from brands.

In openings: The sports betting company Polymarket is opening a pop-up grocery store in New York City on Thursday, which it’s touting as “New York’s first free grocery market.” The language is a clear reference to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise to open free, city-owned grocery stores—though Polymarket’s is a temporary initiative, with plans to distribute thousands of meals through a partnership with a food bank over a five-day period. Mamdani responded to the news on X with a meme: “The worst person you know just made a great point.”

In conferences: Manifest, the “global destination for supply chain and logistics innovation,” is coming to Las Vegas this week. The event brings together supply chain professionals from Fortune 500 companies, with speakers from retailers such as Dollar General, Ikea, Coca-Cola, Clorox, and Nordstrom. The conference is also dedicating a whole section of the showroom to cold chain, or temperature-controlled logistics—an increasingly important part of retail distribution networks as they expand grocery delivery options.