What's the Deal with Duty Free?

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Providing shoppers with a chance to buy and transport goods across international boundaries without paying local and national taxes, duty-free shops are found in airports and other ports and stations around the world. A creation of the 20th century, duty-free shops mark a sharp departure from more than 2,000 years of nations generating revenue by taxing the trade in commodities and other goods.

Sources:

[fermainjackson]

I've noticed in several duty-free shops that products are much more expensive that any shop outside the airport.

[nestoNESTOnesto]

Yay, no taxes, only triple of the normal price with tax, that's what I call good deal :-D

[TheRecord]

For me duty free is just a con. Sure, you don't pay any tax but they charge you double the regular price. I'd rather pay the tax and get the same item for a cheaper price.

[juliaconnell]

it WAS interesting - but I'm left feeling more confused then when I arrived

[Lilitha]

You missed the most important question. Why would the government go along with this? What are they getting out of setting up a duty free spot?

[balooko]

I was hoping he would answer the question of how much of a bargain it really is or if it's kind of a scam, etc? Obviously it depends on the price at each store, but generally. I keep thinking back to an early Seinfeld episode where Kramer insists that Duty Free is just a scam.

[azee]

Duty free more like you pay extra, your trapped in a building where you cant go anywhere so you end up having to purchase the item

[TerribleLizard]

So basically I need a small dry erase board, a calculator, and google to determine if I'm getting a good deal. Sounds like my kind of fun!

[kdamian]

Don't buy anything at Duty Free if you can get the same item in your home country or at the destination. The items are always cheaper, even with local or national tax included, in shops that are not labelled "duty free."

[GeorgeKlinger]

Duty free is a scam. You can always find it cheaper elsewhere.

[Theis]

I work for a DF company in the states and even this guy confused me. In short it's a small scale export company that sells units to customers leaving the country. Every country has their own allowance allowed to bring in before taxes are due on items over the allowance. Also none of our products that are tax free are allowed to be sold to anyone that is not leaving the country. They have to leave the country.

[randomobserver]

"Why are items called duty free?" Because you aren't being asked to pay customs duty on them, and neither is the seller under these circumstances. So they're free of duty...

[robdubz]

£20 tolberones yeh I think the supermarket is cheaper haha

[MannenFromNorth]

Taxfree used be nice, now it's expensive :(

[CulturePhilter]

I’ve always wondered how they distinguish between something bought in a foreign country and something you already own. You don’t have to pay tax on the clothes you pack to take on holiday for instance. Or if I took a Nintendo switch with me to play while on holiday.

[james-p]

I always check the price online when I'm at a duty-free. Sometimes the item in the duty-free costs a good bit less, but sometimes it's more.

[hudali]

The intro of "Chop Suey - System of a Down" keeps playing in my head over and over every time I watch your great videos. your background music is almost identical.

[jameshoopes]

Timely! I’m on vacation and was thinking about this as I walked through the airport.

[randomobserver]

Duty free shops thrived best in the decades before large scale liberalization of trade and the flow of consumer goods- now one hardly sees liquor at really decent prices in them anymore. And so much more variety is available in major country markets the chance of seeing something really unusual at duty free is much less than it once was. Although I did find Australian gin interesting.

[mrbertyqwerty]

what does it mean when a store is "off-licence"?