On Valentine's Day, credit union consumers were apparently inthe mood for love, as merchants saw a 19% increase in dollars spentcompared to last year, according to CO-OP Financial Services in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

“Valentine's Day this year happened to fall on the Friday beforethe three-day President's Day weekend, which perhaps fueledadditional spending on what is normally a busy day for merchants,”said Stan Hollen, president/CEO, CO-OP Financial Services. “Thatfactor combined with an improving economy made Valentine's Day 2014a perfect marriage of love and commerce.”

Transaction data was pulled from the debit and credittransactions of cardholding members of credit unions across thecountry using CO-OP Total Revelation, a data analytics tool fromCO-OP.

The dollar amounts were tracked from Feb. 12 to 14, 2013, andcompared to cardholder spending from Feb. 12 to 14, 2014.

Among the highlights of the CO-OP Total Revelation data:

• Data was tracked for a total of 16 different types ofmerchants. The grand total for all merchants saw a 19% increase indollars spent in 2014 compared to the previous year.
• Cash withdrawals (individual number of transactions) were up by18%.
• Restaurants showed a 20% increase in dollars spent year overyear.
• Pay television services showed a 28% increase in dollars spentyear over year.
• Grocery stores experienced 17% more dollars spent in theirshops in 2014 compared to the previous year. Additionally,grocery stores were the top merchant category for 2014 with threemillion separate transactions that totaled $135 million.

The only category to show a decline from the previous year wasvideo rentals – down 4%.