Maybe we are brainwashed
Photo by James Foreman on Unsplash
When you travel abroad, one of the highlights is shopping, right?
You look up in the travel book where to find the famous this or that. You want to bring home something that is hard to get anywhere else.
The last chance for your shopping is at the duty-free shop in the airport. You show your boarding-pass and you don’t have to pay tax. That’s an extra incentive.
But have you noticed? You may be in Mumbai, Tokyo, Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich, Taipei, Hong Kong, or in Singapore (those are the airports I have been). No matter which airport in the world you are, what are sold are almost the same.
Scotch whiskey, French scarves and perfume, Italian bags and shoes, Swiss watches, German pens, etc. You are familiar with most of the brands because you have seen their ads on magazines and TV.
Let’s say you are a European and this is your first, or maybe the only trip to Japan. You have less than one hour left before boarding. Would you want to try on a scarf with a big logo of a well-known European logo but maybe made somewhere else?
Or would you like to look at the finest silk scarf meticulously hand-painted or hand-woven by a skilled craftsperson in Kyoto, even if you have never heard of that brand? Chances are that craftsperson is now one of the only handful people who are trained that particular technique.
I don’t see such high-end shops focused on Japanese products in Narita Airport. Instead, all the high-end shops are those famous brands that you would see everywhere.
Why? Why are we so used to see these globally well-known brands at the airport? Somehow we are brainwashed, aren’t we?
The only exception I’ve seen so far is Reykjavik. There, at least 80% of the duty-free shops were selling local Icelandic products. I wonder why other airports don’t follow Raykjavik.
Please share your experience in other international airports.