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Things I want to buy Duty Free
Why...
Are we so desperate to buy Duty Free? The truth is duty free is daft. I mean who said… “I know. Let’s fill all departing aircraft with more weight to burn more fuel. In addition, let’s fill the passenger compartment with a bunch of combustibles; booze, perfume, tobacco and raffia or plastic tat.” The truth is airports don’t give a fig about passengers so long as they can claw money off you in the two hours they hold you captive. The logical thing to do of course is to buy items to be collected when you land, thus avoiding transport cost and safety issues. That means all the crap you buy at the airport for friends and relatives because you forgot to buy on holiday will fall by the wayside. And no more local hootch that most of the time is used as paint thinner anyway. If you are desperate to buy a diamond encrusted watch or unobtainium rings because they are massively cheaper than at home, then search them out and buy them when you land. Makes the custom clearance queues shorter for the rest of us.
...and another thing
Much as I enjoy mooching around an airport buying the local duty free, Tibetan Yak firewater gin, or Eau de Wallaby are not really top of my must have lists.
If you really want to do a roaring trade in duty free how about buying a home to avoid stamp duty. Or a duty free Will service to avoid death duties? How about being able to buy an airline ticket without fuel duty surcharge? I’d spend a bloody fortune on that kind of duty free.
Right now I’d quite like to buy a couple of litres of petrol/gas duty free!
...and another thing
I am always quite surprised at the variety on offer in Duty Free and why anyone would decide to buy it at an airport. Admittedly, Jeremy Clarkson has been very successful and finds when he is bored he buys watches, only to get home and ask himself what on earth possessed him to do that as he adds to a couple of hundredweight of other watches he keeps in his sock drawer.
However, some are nearly unbelievable. Voodoo dolls at Haiti to teeth implants in Munich Airport.
Finally, I just don’t understand how you can buy things that won’t go in an overhead locker or under a seat? Terminal 4 at Heathrow has an Art Gallery for example.
I actually saw one father so pestered on a delayed flight to buy his daughter a giant gorilla, he had to buy a seat for it on the flight home!
Stay safe.
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