IS DUTY-FREE SHOPPING A SCAM?

Duty free shopping is most people's highlight of the airport experience. Advertised as "cheaper than the high street" many flock to get the best deals on perfume, makeup, alcohol and cigarettes. I find myself always spending a fortune in duty free, but do I even save that much?

Last time I travelled, I made it my mission to see if I could match duty free airport prices to online retailers and the results were shocking. While most brands of cigarettes and alcohol WAS cheaper when purchasing in an airport, perfume and makeup was a complete u-turn. Fair enough if you have an added money-off coupon to spend in the airport as well as duty free, but most of the time, I found that I could buy the same product online for the same price (certain websites not brand own).

Another point with duty free I found that with makeup brands, most airports do not sell the complete collection of brand products. For example, Urban Decay did not have the eyeliner I normally buy (the very popular one) and MAC cosmetics did not have their perfume range in duty free - crafty!

I always wonder whether it's worth buying duty free as it's so much effort carrying it with you on your travels only to bring it back again with you when you return home. I think we are all conditioned to think that airport duty free prices are a lot cheaper than on the high street, when in reality - they may only be a couple of pounds cheaper... and are these couple of pounds worth dragging your purchases on holiday with you and back again?

There are some perks to duty free though - it is the best place to kill time in an airport and you do find great bargains if you're a savvy shopper and do price research before you go to the airport. That said, is duty free just a shop that's placed in the best location - with a captured audience full of excitement of their holidays that leads them to spend more?

I'll let you decide on that one...