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Where's the best place to buy duty free? And what is actually worthbuying?

Last time I looked into this, a couple of years ago, AucklandInternational Airport was as good as anywhere, so I tend to makemost of my purchases there.

But I should also acknowledge that although I go overseas quite alot, I buy little duty-free these days. Occasionally perfume for adaughter, a bottle of spirits or liqueur.

I've come to the conclusion that if you look around, you can buymost other things just as cheaply - sometimes even more cheaply -without the complications involved in duty-free shopping.

But is my parochial purchasing policy still sensible? And am I welladvised in sticking to perfume and spirits there?

It's actually not easy to check this out. Firstly, because mostduty-free shops don't list their prices online - ours are anhonourable exception - so the only way to compare prices is bygoing and looking. Secondly, because there are so many productvariations, makes, models and sizes, which are constantly changing,it is tricky to ensure you are comparing apples with apples.

There is the website,

thedutyfreepriceguide.com

, which sets out to compare prices at duty-free shops around theworld, which sounds as though it could make the job easy.

For instance, I used it to ask where would be the cheapest place tobuy 50ml of Chanel No 5 eau de toilette spray. The answer, a littleto my surprise, was the much-loved Los Angeles InternationalAirport at $68 (the site can convert prices into NZ dollars),closely followed by Hong Kong Airport at $69.The most expensive of the places I asked about were inflightshopping with Qantas ($108) and British Airports ($95).However, I wasn't able to get much closer to home than that becauseAir New Zealand wasn't listed and DFS, the main preferred operatorat Auckland International Airport, seems to have a problem withselling Chanel.Trying again I looked at a litre of Gordon's dry gin. According toThe Duty Free Price Guide, the best places to buy this wereAustralian airports ($13) and Auckland ($14). That was quitegratifying but there wasn't much in it because the highest pricelisted, at British airports, was only a couple of bucks more ($18).

However, I became a bit nervous about the guide when I checked thewebsites of both DFS and rival Regency and found a litre ofGordon's priced not at $14 but $23.90. That's still quite a savingfrom the $38 price at Glengarry, but it does raise questions aboutthe accuracy of The Duty Free Price Guide.So I had another look at perfume prices, limiting myself toairports with prices online, and using 50ml of Bulgari Aqua PourHomme as my example. That seems to be priced at $60 at Regency and$66 at DFS in Auckland compared with $72 at LA and $100 in Britain,so it does appear that the local operators continue to offer goodvalue.But I also found 50ml of Aqua Pour Homme online for $53 (perfumestore.co.nz) so I may direct family perfume purchases to the web in future.The other point I wanted to check was whether I have been on themoney in continuing to buy cameras at local stores rather thanduty-free.Using a Canon 80is as my test case, I found DFS and and Regencyboth offering prices of $399. But I then discovered that Camera& Camera in Queen St was quoting a price of $399 with a freeprinter included. And PriceSpy.co.nz advised that I could buy a Canon 80is online for as little as $382(plus freight presumably).The only overseas comparison I could get was at Sydney Airport -$380.he message I got out of all this research is that, thanks to thesteady reduction in import duties, there's less and less benefitfrom duty-free shopping, except when it comes to things such asspirits and tobacco which still carry high levels of excise duty.And it also seems as though there is less and less differencebetween the prices at different airports ... which is no greatsurprise when you discover that duty-free shopping is increasinglyprovided by international chains.The website

asiaforvisitors.com tried to develop a duty-free benchmark index based on the price ofMarlboro cigarettes, Chivas Regal whisky and Chanel No 5 perfume ateight major airports, including Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok.

It concluded, "The bottom line is that there's very littledifference between prices at one place and another. Most of thedifferences can be put down to exchange rates and the effects ofrounding. So ... you might as well buy it where it's mostconvenient."