Duty free section at airports = hell

I like airports and big train stations and for their feeling of possibility, the idea you could theoretically go anywhere, their temporary, constantly changing atmosphere and the general sense that all sorts of lives are passing through. I have always enjoyed being "in transit" especially when traveling alone (often more stressful in a group).

I hate duty free though, I don't think it adds anything pleasant. The same products could be sold in a less offensive, sensory onslaught type way, just as the clothing and snack and pharmacy and newsagents and electronics and souvenir outlets in the airport work.

It sets my allergies off, it is like the old Debenham's perfume section on steriods. Hate it. Is any of it actually that much cheaper anymore?

To be fair everything about Manchester is hell on Earth.

All that awful perfume. I powerwalk through it, holding my nose. Makes me think of Mr Bean in the perfume section of the department store.

Hopefully you sit next to your family and friends on the plane and don't inflict the headache/ airway irritating duty free smells on strangers in close proximity for the duration of the flight?

I love duty free.!! As someone who.9/10 times gets treated to a hand search at security ( i have no idea why I keep failing the body scan) I enjoy spaying myself with perfume i can't afford and hand cream i can't afford . I see it as the airports way to apologise lol

I LOVE airports, planes and flying. The night we stayed in the airport hotel in Tokyo Haneda (the airport is IN the terminal) was one of the best nights of my life. I love everything about the process. Sometimes I wish I could just go to one and hang out. I find them so exciting. I love duty free. I love it all. Sorry.

Have you not been here very long? A lot of MN are easily traumatised. Wait until you hear their reaction if someone knocks on the door or calls on the phone unexpectedly.

airports are just too busy. For obvious reasons. The only way to make them more pleasant would be to get rid of most of the passengers, who are the only reason they are sustainable in the first place 😂

There's no way round, you're funnelled through like the gift shop at a theme park.
I haven't bought anything in an airport apart from overpriced sandwiches in 30 years

I’m in enemy territory.

You’re just not going to the right airports.

kindly, but where do you fly from? Bagdad?

London and European airports in general can be a bit of pain, but it's not exactly traumatic.

I avoid them, but I buy the occasional bargain when I need something.

When you need some beauty stuff, always worth checking the price in the duty free when you walk pass. Always found my perfume or face products a lot cheaper. I wouldn't go specifically to these places, but you are there anyway, so might as well make the most of them

Yes, they are awful. Worse is the habit of many airports (seems particularly prevalent in UK airports) of not giving you any alternative but to walk through the duty free after security.

I still have perfumes that I bought in the duty free in former days and have never opened them. I should probably give them away. Airports are horrendous places where you get treated like meat by low level grumpy staff with a power complex. Last time |I travelled i just requested special assistance and bypassed all that. I enjoyed the dirty looks I got when I was whisked to the front of the queue.

I don’t mind it. Dh and my older teens mooch about, looking at all the things we can’t afford, sniffing all the perfumes, drooling over the huge packs of daim..

I think the whole experience of an airport (in the uk) itself is busy, loud, overwhelming and sensory overload

Same goes for ones I've been to in Europe.

Malaga. Amsterdam.

Completely this. If I go to a duty free in an airport it's after I've sat down for a bit and mentally recovered from check in etc.

stansted is horrendously packed like sardines awful place

It may be fine for people who actually want to go through the hell-hole of duty free, but what I really despise is that we are now all routed through it and there’s no way of avoiding it and for some of us the sensory overload is really unpleasant.

most perfumes give me a violent instant headache.

I felt absolutely horrible the other day when i sat down on a flight and a large man came and sat in the same row (empty seat in between us). No problem, except he was wearing a ton of aftershave. I could feel the headache coming on after 3 seconds so I had to get up and move. I explained why but I really worried that he thought I was objecting to him for some other reason.

I was wondering who puts on aftershave for a ryanair flight but maybe duty free samples is the answer!

Of course, this makes being forced to walk through duty free even more unpleasant, although I often enjoy the chance to buy some makeup.

We usually go from Heathrow T5 and I love it, it’s exciting. In the duty free I just head for the L’Occitane counter to see if they have any travel exclusives.

Absolutely hideous place if there at stupid O’clock! The smell,the lights and the crap on sale is too much!

Airports have made themselves very unpleasant places to be. Expensive too.
They are gaudy, brash, loud and lack class.
The lounges probably are not much better. Not that I have ever parted with money to go to one.
No wonder people try to avoid them at all costs. The flights might be quick to parts of Europe but this becomes completely pointless really by the journey to the airport, the overnight stay, the four hours to get through and wait to board.
Quick it isn’t.