Dubai: Love-struck couples were not the only ones who had something to smile about on Valentine’s Day with owners of flower shops and chocolate stores admitting they just can’t have enough of the annual celebration of love.
The ‘Rawdat Al Zohor’ flower shop in Dubai spoke for all businesses cashing in on the celebrations with florist Sae’r Kataab, from Syria, barely able to spare two minutes for Gulf News due to the large number of customers walking into the shop.
“I haven’t sat down for the past 48 hours” said Kataab. “Customers just keeping coming in one after the other and it has been like this for the past three days,” he added.
Kataab told Gulf News that he had already sold around 5,000 roses from the 8,000 that were available at the shop. “Alhamdulillah things have been going great so far,” he said.
As for chocolate stores, Ehab Samarra, a sales person at a store based in Jumeirah, said that sales of heart-shaped chocolates had been especially encouraging. “We always sell well but, during Valentine’s Day, there are certain items that customers concentrate on, like the heart-shaped chocolates and chocolates with red wrapping.”
Samarra also told Gulf News that that he also noticed an increase in school students coming in for heart-shaped chocolates. “Usually young men in their twenties are the ones that purchase the most chocolate on Valentine’s Day. This year however I have had a couple of students come in wearing their school uniforms to buy chocolates, which I thought was cute and symbolises innocent love.”
— Noor Nazzal is a trainee at Gulf News
