UAE | General
At any other price, it would smell as sweet
Every year, Valentine's Day sends people on a hunt to find the perfect rose, and when they are to be found the cost is high. But this year, the price of love doubled.
- By Marten Youssef, Staff Reporter
- Published: 18:35 February 14, 2008
- Men buying red roses at Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi. The price of a bouquet of roses went up to Dh144 on Valentine's Day, from merely Dh50 last week.
- Image Credit: Abdul Rahman/Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Every year, Valentine's Day sends people on a hunt to find the perfect rose, and when they are to be found the cost is high. But this year, the price of love doubled.
“We have more than 4,000 orders for Valentine's Day and we are just a small shop," says Maria Belbas, a worker at Emirates Flowers in Khalidiya. Just last week a bouquet of a dozen roses cost Dh50, but on Thursday it spiraled to Dh144. "One rose costs as much as Dh12 today … it's just because of Valentine's Day," says Belbas.
In other stores, custom bouquets sold for as high as Dh500, but Belbas says it didn't stop people from buying.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ajar Albaluchi bought a large bouquet of flowers for one of her lady friends, knowing that prices had increased. "It's the fever and you just have to cave in sometimes," says Albaluchi.
Shattering the stigma that Valentine's Day is about romance, Albaluchi bought an elaborate bouquet of flowers for one of her lady friends. "Valentine's Day is really no different from any other day, but it's always nice to feel loved, especially when the whole world around you is singing. If you look at it that way, it's not too expensive," she says.
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