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You are here: Home / Opinion / Are Airport Travel Shops Good value for money? Depends if your name is Dixons Travel…

Are Airport Travel Shops Good value for money? Depends if your name is Dixons Travel…

02/04/2016 by Kevincm

Sometimes, you get stuck in an airport when your plane has a 1 hour 30 ground stop.

And sometime, the lounge just gets boring. So you go shopping to see if there’s a bargain or not to be found.

Some of you know that I have a hankering for nice photographic equipment – and I was in the mood for a Canon lens.

Specifically a Canon 50mm f1.4. Not the most brilliant lens in the world, but you never know when you need a 50mm lens in life (least of all, reasonable low-light performance, blends onto the body nicely, and relativity light).

A few days before hand – I spotted it at my local branch of Jessops (a chain of camera stores in the UK) and this was pretty good priced (Even without the cashback).

IMG_1884

£229 is a bargain for this lens – and part of me was thinking that Canon actually started bringing its prices down.

And if is the prices at Jessops… surely Dixon’s Travel would match it at least…

Screen Shot 2016-04-01 at 15.11.33
Source: Dixons Travel – www.dixonstravel.com

So how much would they be offering the lens at Heathrow Terminal 3?

IMG_2018
£244.

Now, I did a little checking – and the offer wasn’t a one-off.

IMG_2017

Live price from Jessop on 30th March 2016.

I think I shocked the staff there – and they were not willing to price match or offer the double discount on the item – with the member of staff stating they’d only price match a lens and camera kit.

I reached out to Dixons Travel for comment and price match. I got 10 shades of nothing back:

Is @Dixons_Travel cheaper than @jessops ? No – and they won’t price match at LHR T3! pic.twitter.com/m6rYPKfUj2

— Kevin-Economy&Beyond (@EconomyBeyond) March 30, 2016

There are some things that are worth shopping for at airports due to tax-free or low tax statuses. And this is brilliant.

However:§. You will find that airport pricing may not be the best around….


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Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: Airport retail, duty free, travel

Comments

  1. DaninMCI says

    02/04/2016 at 1:31 pm

    That’s a shocker. Of course airport shops are expensive. I guess at times you might be able to save on VAT or get a refund of the VAT, etc.

    Just try buying bottled water or soda at the Charlotte airport in the USA and you’ll be grateful for they bargain prices at other airports 🙂

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