Duty Free in Airports

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By the mid 19 fifties, the juty free shop at shannon was also a huge source of jobs. Keno carroll says that in a nation with mostly small businesses, this one store in this one airport was actually one of ireland's largest employers. For six years, annon was the only airport duty free shop in the world. People from other airports came along fast to see what he was doing. And they all took off and opened up in paris and in london and everywhere else. Within a few decades, duty free became a thing that just exists practically in every airport in the world,. From dabi to bankok? Even now, these shops are

On the west coast of Ireland, on the banks of an estuary dividing county Limerick from county Clare, lies a small town called Shannon. But Shannon is not a quaint fishing village or farming community. Its industry is its airport. And Shannon Airport is big. It handles up to 1.7 million passengers and 20,000 flights a year, most of them from other countries. It looks like a cosmopolitan international airport, but it has a unique claim to fame: the world's first airport duty-free store.

Today, the store has what you would expect -- designer perfumes, jewelry and various fine foods, with a lot of local (in this case Irish) products in particular. But like the area around the airport, the shop started out small, with a local boy from the area who would go on to change the world of tax-free commerce in and beyond Shannon.

Call of Duty: Free