Ahead of the UAE’s 41st National Day celebrations, vehicle accessory shops all over the country are seeing strong demand from Emiratis and expatriates for stickers with images of the national flag and present rulers and founders of the emirates.

Shop owners say demand for ‘patriotic’ stickers as soared over 500 per cent in the past two weeks.

Haujah Abbas, manager of Golden Treasure Store in Sharjah, who has sold national flags and car decoration for the past 10 years, said the weeks and days leading up to National Day on December 2 is the busy season for car accessory shops like his.

He said about 80 per cent of the buyers of national flags and other National Day decorations for their cars were Emiratis. Other Arab nationals like Syrians, Egyptians, Iraqis, Lebanese and Jordanians and Asians like Pakistanis, Indians and Iranians and a few Europeans made up the remaining 20 per cent.

Sharjah has more than 100 stores selling car accessories and decorations. There are wholesale markets for these things in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, he said.

He pointed out that most of these ‘patriotic’ products are imported from China, though there are some small workshops which make national flags and stickers in Ajman and Umm Al Quwain.

Vijay Kumar, manager of Kashish accessory shop in Satwa, said demand for mementos like T-shirts, flags and stickers of the rulers had doubled during the month before UAE National Day.

Ahmed Seifullah, manager of  Al Diwan accessory shop, said demand for flags and stickers had shot up more than 500 per cent. Though most of the customers are citizens, the shop had buyers of Arab nationalities and Europeans, particularly from Spain and Italy.