Just doing their duty

Why do people feel compelled to shop at the duty-free area in airports?

 

Whenever I go past security while travelling on an international route and hit the duty-free area, I am amazed by the cornucopia of goods on offer. Apart from the regulation liquor, chocolates, make-up and perfumes, these days you have every designer brand from doing brisk business in bags, clothes, shoes and sunglasses. And as I watch people shopping frantically at what is usually (though not always) the end of their vacation, I can’t help but wonder what drives this spending spree.

 

Have these people kept money aside specifically for this purpose? Have they researched the goods available at the duty-free stores to make sure that they can find a specific object? Are they just trying to take advantage of tax-free shopping? Or is this a last blast of holiday fun before they go back to the dreary business of everyday living? 

 

Are these purchases last-minute gifts for their loved ones waiting for them at home? And if they are buying gifts, what is the motivation behind it? Are they driven by love, say, for a spouse who they have missed on a business trip? Or is the purchase driven by guilt at leaving a child behind while they head out on an adults-only holiday? Is the purchase a strategic one, aimed at pleasing a boss who sent them on a company junket? Or are they just ticking off items on a list sent across by a demanding family member?

 

There was a time in my life when I used to do my fair share of duty-free shopping. There were, of course, the boxes of cigarettes that friends and neighbours would ask for. And in those dark days of yore when alcohol was not freely available in India, this was always the ideal opportunity to stock up on whiskey, gin or champagne. I never ever bought stuff for my bosses but whenever I headed back from a holiday abroad, I would always buy many boxes of chocolate for my staff, only partly motivated by guilt for abandoning them to work while I had a nice little foreign jolly. 

 

But now that almost everything that is available in duty-free is also on sale at the neighbourhood mall, it seems like too much of a palaver to get stuck into shopping at the airport. And frankly, by the time I have negotiated check-in, immigration and security, I am so exhausted that all I want to do is collapse in the lounge with a nice glass of wine. The very thought of browsing through shops, shortlisting things, doing a quick price comparison and then queueing up to pay, seems like entirely too much work.

 

And yet, airports across the world are full of people doing exactly that. And I can’t help but marvel at (and be bemused by) their enthusiasm for duty-free shopping. I can just about get my head around those who are buying bottles of liquor or make-up and perfume. But I cannot for the life of me understand those who are casually picking up big-ticket items like Hermes and Chanel bags – hardly impulse buys – on their way to the departure gates.

 

Or maybe I am the one who has got it wrong. Maybe the best way to treat a modern airport is to treat it like a luxury department store. And the right way to recover from queue fatigue is to try a little retail therapy.

Retail therapy

Everyone enjoys his or her own version

 

Every time I come back from a vacation, my friends always ask me excitedly, “So, what did you buy?” And every single time I have to disappoint them by saying, “Er, nothing really,” adding apologetically, “I am not much of a shopper, you know!”

 

That’s not to say that I am some abstemious, self-denying, sanyasin who has lost all interest in worldly goods and possessions. Not at all. It’s just that when I am exploring a new city like Florence or even an old haunt like London, it seems such a waste of time trawling through shops when I could be visiting museums, picnicking in parks, or just wandering aimlessly through the streets.

 

Also when it comes to buying stuff, I am very much a needs-based shopper and a complete and utter creature of habit. So, when I need some linen shirts or kurtas for the summer, I head to Marks and Spencer and Anokhi. If I need occasionwear then it’s either Abraham and Thakore or Good Earth. Over the years I have tried to expand my retail base, but like a faithful hound, I come back to my familiar haunts to sniff out my usual favourites.

 

I guess when it comes to shoppers, all of us fall into a few readily identifiable categories. Here are just some of them that I have identified over the years.

 

The Ditherers: My late mother was the first Ditherer I ever encountered in life. She would spend ages debating between the many choices laid out before her. She would go from shop to shop to see that she hadn’t missed out on anything. And then, hours later, she would finally bite the bullet and buy something. But the moment she unpacked it at home, buyer’s remorse would strike. And back to the shop we went the next day to ask for an exchange. That’s a nightmare I will never live through again – and how sorry I am for that.

 

The Researchers: These are the people who never venture into the shops without first logging on to Google to research their many choices, going on Amazon and Flipkart to see what the online prices are like (not to mention the reviews), and then tweeting out to their followers to get their advice to buy anything from an electric car to a moisturizer. Only once they have all this information at their fingertips do they commit to making a purchase. And I have to say that they are rarely dissatisfied with their choice.

 

The Impulse Shoppers: I must confess that I dread going out shopping with this lot. Instead of focusing on what we have set out to buy, they are easily distracted by the first thing that catches their eye in a shop window. And once they start browsing they can’t seem to stop. They pick up so much junk along the way that by the time it comes to making their main purchase, they find they have run out of steam – and money!

 

The Same-To-Samers: My husband is the prime example of this. Unlike me, who shops at the same outlets, he actually shops for the very same thing he has bought a dozen times before. So, he ends up with 15 identical blue linen shirts, a dozen identikit jeans, and many pairs of the same shoes. He says it takes the stress out of dressing; I say it takes the fun out of it. You decide which one of us is right!

It's a brand new year!

Here’s hoping we get to use this one…

So, finally, we meet in 2021, having bid goodbye to a rollercoaster of a year called 2020. I don’t know about you, but the first few weeks of the New Year always imbue me with an optimistic mood. There is the sense of new beginnings, a looking forward to fresh possibilities, and the feeling that we have embarked on a brand new adventure.

Of course, some of 2020 will carry over to 2021 as well. Covid ain’t going anywhere any time soon and doctors warn us that we will have to continue wearing masks, washing hands, and socially distancing through this year as well. Sadly, normal service is unlikely to be resumed any time soon.

I know all this at a rational level, and yet, that ‘New Year’ feeling refuses to go away. And here, in no particular order of importance, is what I am looking forward to:

• Getting the Covid vaccine. I don’t know when my turn will finally come, but I am hoping that my comorbidities (never have I been more grateful that I have a few!) will push me up the queue. And the moment my number is called, I will be there, sleeve rolled up in readiness to receive the shot. And I sincerely hope that all of you will do the same – because this vaccine thing only works if all of us get the requisite two doses.  

• Releasing my new book. Ideally, the sequel to Race Course Road should have been out in 2020. But somehow, the idea of bringing a book out in the middle of a pandemic and doing all my promotions on Zoom, didn’t quite appeal to me. So, I postponed sending it off to my publisher on one pretext or another, holding off till some semblance of normality returned. So, the book will now be birthed in a post-vaccine world – and I am looking forward to that with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

• Creating a mask-free extended family bubble. Until now, my pandemic bubble has consisted of just my husband and me. In the last nine months I have never met anyone else without a mask – no, not even members of my own family. But once Covid loosens its grip on us, and after everyone has been tested/vaccinated, we can finally have our Big Fat Indian Family gathering. Zoom calls and video chats are all very well, but there is nothing like the actual warm embrace of family to feel whole again. 

• Going on vacation abroad. Over the last few months, my husband and I have taken a few mini-breaks – but always within driving distance of Delhi. And it’s been great. We rediscovered the magical beauty of the Taj Mahal on a trip to Agra, spending the entire day sitting on our balcony, gazing mesmerized at the ultimate monument to love. We reacquainted ourselves with Rajasthan, making trips to Alwar and Jaipur. And even though we didn’t venture out of our hotels, the change still did us good. But now I am getting itchy feet again. And I am hoping that in a few months time, I will be able to visit some of my favourite haunts abroad as well. London is number one on that list, but if that doesn’t work, I am quite happy to settle for Bangkok or Singapore as well.

• Venturing out to the shops. The one thing Covid did was to introduce me to the pleasures of online shopping. And in the initial days of lockdown, I went a little berserk, ordering everything from Le Creuset cookware to stationary to hair scrunchies on the Internet. But after the initial excitement wore off, I began to miss the experience of going out and shopping in brick and mortar stores. Until now, though, I have resisted the urge to head out to malls or department stores, for fear of tempting fate. But, with a bit of luck, it will be possible to do a spot of retail therapy in 2021. And after a year of being abstemious I can’t wait to indulge myself.