Duty Free Shopping

I don't understand duty free shops. At all.

I'm yet to fathom the origin of the hysterical reaction in some that allows them to wave their boarding pass in orgasmic delight in the face of a confused foreign shop assistant, while spending a stupid amount of money on enough alcohol to pickle the livers of the sheep population of New Zealand, or on cigarettes plentiful enough to turn your lungs into heaving, viscous globs of tar.

Oh and perfume. You can buy perfume. You can also buy perfume on the plane too. And sunglasses. I don't know about you, but when I need perfume for someone or sunglasses, my first thought isn't "book a flight somewhere...". Why do they think people will take leave of their senses and think "Here I am, stuck in an airport miles from anywhere, what I really need now is four litres of Paco Rabanne and enough crap toys to keep Taiwan in business for the next millennia"?

The chocolate is the worst however. It is always stupidly expensive. Something like £5 for a toblerone or £8 for some Lindt chocolate, and they whack the "BUY TWO GET ONE FREE!!!" signs all over it, with lots of exclamation marks, to make us believe we are getting a bargain.

I came through Malaga airport recently and they were selling Chup-a-Chup lollipops that were the size of a small thermonuclear warhead. They cost about the same too. A mug, that on a local market I would not pay more than £1 for, was available for the princely sum of 12 Euros and people were buying them.

They should have buckets outside these shops so people can place their sense of self-respect and brains into.

There was a time when duty free did offer a saving, with the advent of the EU and unscrupulous airport operators, this has now long since past. It is a thoroughly depressing experience.

Duty free? Dutifully expensive more like.

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