Duty-free shops are retail outlets acclaimed for their convenient prices and luxury products. The first duty free store was opened in the early 50s in Ireland, it was then copied worldwide and about 10 years later the Duty Free Shopping (DFS) chain was founded.
Duty is a term given to a customs tax paid to import something in a country. Whenever you buy an imported good, the seller does include in the sale the duty paid to import it. Duty free shops are frequently found in the international zone of airports and ports. Being in international territory, they are jurisdictionally exempt of the import tax which is the reason products are cheaper, even though this is not always the case.
In these shops you can find a wide range of products such as chocolate confections, cosmetics, handbags, fine watches, tobacco and many others. Duty Free shops are also famous for abounding in luxury products such as home and décor products, jewelry, Courvoisier cognac and Armani Sunglasses.
If you are planning to travel abroad, you will be able to find duty-free stores in the international zone of the airports you will pass by. Still, it does often happen that travelers don`t take advantage of duty-free stores` convenient prices because of lack of information.
The most common mistake travelers do is buying goods in their home country airport`s duty-free shops. Doing so they don’t profit from duty-free low prices because they are asked to pay the import tax (duty) in their home country`s customs. Your nationality is not important, the country you are going to “consume“ the goods bought in a duty free shop matters. For example, if you are a US citizen residing in Paris, to get around the import tax, you have to buy goods in a US airport duty-free shop in your way back to Paris.
Once you know where to purchase the merchandise, you have to take into consideration your home country`s duty-free exemption, also called personal exemption, which is the maximal amount of merchandise you may bring back to your residing country without having to pay duty on it. To make an example, in US the personal exemption is of 800$, i.e. if you have spent more than 800$ in duty free shopping, you will have to pay duty for the surplus.
In case you need a new camera or any electronic device don’t forget to ask information about the product warranty. In fact not all the electronic products sold in duty-free shops have an international warranty. If you have made up your mind about the model you can research the warranty conditions in the manufacture`s official website. Moreover, there have been many articles showing that electronic products are relatively expensive in duty-free stores so you better make a research on prices in advance.
Finally, if you are going to pass by more than two airports it pays to make some research about the prices in the different duty-free shops. In fact, prices can change considerably in different airports.
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