Is airport shopping really worth it?

Aug. 18 2013

by misterb&b

Is it really cheaper to indulge in a new perfume, a bottle of alcohol or a piece of clothing just before boarding a plane?

According to a British study published this Monday, "tax-free" stores in European airports are on average 6.2% cheaper than city center stores. On the other hand, they remain more expensive (+6.1% on average) than online stores. The sponsor of this study, the online comparison shop Kelkoo, did not fail to point this out.

For the survey, the serious Centre for Retail Research studied the prices of 22 products in "tax free" stores (i.e. prices reserved for intra-European travelers).for the survey, the very serious Centre for Retail Research studied the prices of 22 products in the "tax free" shops (in other words, prices reserved for intra-European travelers, not the "duty free" possible for travel beyond the European Union) of the 10 largest European airports, representing 80% of annual traffic.

In the ranking, two airports are doing very well: Lyon Saint Exupéry (-11.9%)andRoissy Charles de Gaulle (-11.5%) are the most competitive European airports compared to city center stores, far ahead of Amstedam-Schiphol (-6.1%), Barcelona (-5%) or London-Heathrow (the lowest ranked, -3.1%).

So what is best to buy? Avoid sweets and delicatessen! On average, they are 12.4% more expensive than in traditional stores. Prefer wine, tobacco or spirits, which are on average 11.9% cheaper.

If we now compare airport by airport, Rome is the cheapest airport in Europe, ahead of Frankfurt, Berlin, Lyon and Paris. This should be put into perspective, because if we only take into account basic products (alcohol, cigarettes, etc.), the ranking is reversed, with the British airports of Gatwick and Heathrow leading the way as the cheapest airports.

Last year, Europeans spent more than 3 billion euros in airport duty-free stores.