keven caners visits the world's first duty free shop at shannon airport in ireland. The store is stocked with designer perfumes, jewellry and various fine foods. It also promotes irish products such as water for crystals or sweet shops like anso. A local boy from near Shannon came up with the idea of selling tax-free goods to promote Irish industry.
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