Travellers warned about Channel-ferry ‘bargains’

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 10

Travellers warned about Channel-ferry ‘bargains’

KEN COATES

By

in London New Zealand travellers lured into the duty-free shops aboard cross-Channel ferries this northern summer would be well advised to take a keen look at prices. . According to an Automobile Association survey, the shops are not always the bargain basements they appear to be. Although some savings can be made, there is a wide variation in prices. A bottle of malt whisky cost £6.44 on one ferry but £9.02 on another compared with £13.27 in a supermarket in Britain. A packet of 200 king-size cigarettes cost anything between# 3.50 and £5.78. compared with £7.90 in a r

supermarket. The A.A. says that all too often the price people pay in the duty-free shop is simply

what the market will stand and the shopper is the market. It says, “Any relationship to the vaunted freedom from duty is usually virtually coincidental.” It says that Channel ferry operators are making profits of at least 100 per cent on some brands of cigarettes, 400 per cent on spirits, and • “anybody’s guess” on perfume. The ferry operators say that the profits offset their enormous running costs and are passed back to the customer in the form of lower fares. The A.A. says, “This is all very laudable no doubt but it is rather hard on the shopper who thinks he is getting a

I bargain at the expense 08 th® ■ taxman.” | On a bottle of whisky i selling at £6.30 in the supen market, £4.08 would be taken in excise duty and 82p in value-added tax, so the dutyfree retail price of that bottle, allowing for a supermarket’s profit, is a mere £1.40. 1 The A.A. believes that the • solution is either to give the business to a supermarket chain or to do away with the idea of duty-free and let the ferry operators make their profits where the customer can see what he is paying for: on the tickets. The A.A. also advises motorists and ferry-users to buy their allowances of table wine from the country of origin.