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Raining profits for umbrella sellers

ABU DHABI — Owing to the shortage of umbrellas in the capital, their prices have almost doubled and many shopkeepers cleared their last year’s stock during the rainy days and charged customers up to Dh5 more than the actual prices.

A survey of the market showed that the actual price of China-made umbrella was Dh5-6 but shopkeepers were selling them at Dh8-13 each.

Many shopkeepers were not getting their quota of umbrellas from suppliers. Some of them have umbrellas but are charging more on each umbrella.

Shopkeeper Ahmad Masood, at Hamdan Street in Abu Dhabi, said, “We are getting umbrellas by paying higher prices.

The wholesellers have increased prices up to Dh15-20 on a dozen of small umbrellas. We sold a small umbrella at Dh10 on Tuesday (rainy day) against its earlier price of Dh6, while the big umbrellas were priced on Tuesday at Dh20 as compared to Dh15 before the rain.”

A shopper who visited around three markets but failed to get a single umbrella on Tuesday, said, “I went to Dirham Plaza, Emirates Discount Market and a shop at the Passport Road in the capital but I did not find a single umbrella there.” “Due to shortage we have to pay higher prices so we charged people higher prices. On Tuesday we sold over 150 umbrellas and on Wednesday too we did good business selling around 50 umbrellas as well,” Masood added.

In the market, most of the shopkeepers are selling China-made umbrellas but some of them are having UAE-made umbrellas too. A shopkeeper at Hamdan Street’s Al Jameela Store said, “In all seasons we sell it as people take it to their homes but due to rain the sale has gone up. But we are selling the small umbrella at Dh13.”