Duty free

Back around 2000, I flew a lot to Belgium and my cupboard was well stocked by all sorts of spirits I'd never end up drinking, but I remember Duty Free for alcohol being an adventure and choice...

I didn't really look at it till I was flying outside the EU a few months ago, and specifically looking for a bottle of tequilla inside Gatwick. Its largely the same price as the supermarket now, right? Most of it is duty paid, and available to all, with a small subset (standard gin, whisky, vokdas) being duty free...

I ended up buying a nice bottle of tequilla on the plane, but whats the duty free like in Las Vegas? Will I find a nice tequilla in there? Or should i just preorder the last one on the plane again?

I understand why EU duty free (ie: Duty Paid) is crap now, so few flights are valid, but who's it aimed at? Its not a bargain in any way? I wouldn't mind so much if they had a bigger choice the few times I could use real Duty free... Saving 3 quid on a litre bottle of Gordons wasn't what it was about, it was those spirits you wouldn't buy in the local Tescos...

The duty free shop is tiny in Las Vegas with very little choice of anything. Pre-ordering your tequila is a sensible thing to do.

[mitchja]

You have the loss leading supermarkets to thank for that who are now selling alcohol for less than cost price!!!

Duty free bottles also tend to be bigger (1 litre) whereas supermarket bottles are generally only 750ml.

[Neil]

When we were at MAN T2 in October their Duty Free had some cracking deals on alcohol, but as we were flying to the US we couldn't do buy and collect so had to leave it.

The only duty free I miss is the BBR that used to be in T3. I recall a certain Mr Long who would avail of himself to pepper up the inflight service too :w .

As for general DF, I can't recall the last time I bought anything alcoholic in a bottle ... some perfume yes, and also expensive skin care like La Prairie where even the VAT reduction makes it worth it.

You have the loss leading supermarkets to thank for that who are now selling alcohol for less than cost price!!!

Duty free bottles also tend to be bigger (1 litre) whereas supermarket bottles are generally only 750ml.

Now theres a couple of leading statements...

I don't think bottles of tequilla are the type of alcohol which supermarkets sell for less than cost, I thought that was more the low end of the market. So unless duty free is selling 24 cans of stella and three litre bottles of super cider, they tend to selling at above cost...

And yes, I know they sell them in litres in Duty Free. They tend to sell bottles of tequilla in 500ml bottles, making it _really_ easy to compare. Indeed, there was about 5p difference between 2 500 mls bottles of tequilla and 1 litre bottle...

They also sell litre bottles in supermarkets now too, making the 15 quid in tescos for a litre of Gordons gin, compared to 15 quid duty paid in Gatwick duty free, _very_ easy to compare...