This was surprising to me.
Shopping at DFS (Duty Free Shops) at the international airports in India was neither useful nor pleasurable from time immemorial, as the shops were not consumer friendly and used to stock things which were not really in demand. The shopping on the India side when you land from overseas was usually ignored by tourists, especially the Indian tourists. Any comparison with overseas DFS shopping did not make any sense at all. Further, the prices in Singapore or Hong Kong Airport DFS shops were much more attractive.
How things have changed, and how things are still changing !
Now, the Duty-Free Shopping experience on the Indian International Airports such as Mumbai and Delhi has improved significantly. There are many more things to shop for, and the shop attendants are hovering around trying to help. Of course, the infrastructure is not comparable as the shops in India are much smaller and are not gleaming reproductions of Singapore shops.
But, the fact is that almost the same things are now available, and at cheaper prices. I don’t know how, I thought stuff should cost more since Indian Rupee has depreciated by some 10 to 15% over the past three months.
The Singapore Changi Airport prices for wines for example, are much higher, and given that one has got to multiply by a much higher exchange rate, the price in Indian Rupees is really high (by more than 20 to 30%) for similar wines. I think the whiskeys are slightly cheaper on the Singapore side, though I did not buy any whiskey. I roamed around the DFS Liquor Shop at Changi for quite some time, and then decided not to purchase, as I came to the conclusion that the prices are higher than on the Indian side.
I still found many folks on my flight carrying stuff from the Changi Airport DFS, but probably they have not done their due diligence, or they are buying non-liquor things which are not readily available at the Indian airports.
As I rightly guessed, the Mumbai International Airport DFS had some very good wines (and many whiskeys and other liquors) and I picked up couple of Australian wines for USD 22 less a discount of USD 4 ! I had to pay in USD, but that was fine. At the end of the day, I know that these wines are more expensive in Singapore and very expensive in the usual wine shops of Mumbai out there in the city.
The pity is that they allow only two bottles of duty-free wine (and just one bottle of whiskey), so one can enjoy only for a short time !
Welcome to DFS experience in India, and keep some USD change while arriving back !!
Cheers
Vijay Srinivasan
21st January 2012
Mumbai
