The Wasp shares a disturbing anecdote. The WH Smith outlet at Manchester airport is now asking to see passengers’ boarding passes when they pay for their magazines and chocolates. As the Wasp observes, like good little drones people comply without question. Our fearless warrior is an exception and challenges the question. He finds that, actually, he doesn’t have to provide this information as it is being used for marketing purposes. When asked how many people have challenged this request, he is told that he is the first in four weeks to do so. Given the throughput of the average regional airport, that’s a lot of people who willingly hand over their papers to anyone who asks. I don’t know about you, but I find that frightening. A simple “no” had the desired effect. It’s a powerful little word and it’s about time the British people revived it.
What a sad state of affairs in the UK when people blindly comply without question to any and every request to produce their papers. The government doesn’t even need to try to create a police state here as it would seem that 99% of the population are already fully complaint sheep.
As I’ve pointed out before, we are our own worst enemies. Start saying “no” to these people and mean it!
Some folk seem to think that it is necessary for HMRC reasons.
Even if items are being sold at the same prices to all comers and advertised as VAT or duty-free, VAT and duty still apply to items which are not being sold for export. The retailer still has to account for the status of every item sold and pay the appropriate amount to HMG where tax is due. Obviously, this means that their effective cost of sales differs depending on the destination, so they want to get it right to maximise their profits, not to mention avoiding a compliance audit from HMRC.
And:
The secondary benefit is marketing information. Where are your clients going to? Can you spot trends of spending linked to destination? All of that sort of thing.
The irritating point is that, to comply with the tax regs you HAVE to show the BP. At LHR last year (or year before!) I had left the BP in the lounge. So I told them the info on it but was refused and had to go back to get it. The agent merely read off the pass what I had told her but she HAD to see the pass for procedural reasons.
I’m inclined to think that as the Wasp discovered, it is the former rather than the latter reason. I’ve travelled regularly between France and the UK by air and have never been asked for my boarding pass in airport outlets and would have refused if I had been. This has the feel of “because we can” written all over it rather than for tax purposes – after all, a newspaper, magazine or bag of crisps is hardly going to have huge tax implications.
If people started saying “no” this type of behaviour would cease – they only do it because the UK population has been trained to be submissive and compliant when faced with any sort of authority – even the checkout peeps at WH Smith. As the Wasp says, what a sad state of affairs.
Easy: if asked for a boarding pass, just put the newspaper, crisps or chocolate down and walk away, leaving the store to put them back in the right place. They’ll soon get the message. Even better, buy your stuff before you get to the airport. The whole security swindle is only in place to bore us into retail therapy.
I’d take the same approach as the Wasp and challenge them, being prepared to walk away of necessary.
We are in a minority, unfortunately and I find that worrying.
Hi Longrider
I can confirm that in the Tax Free Shops in the UK, we have to actually see the boarding card to be able to serve passengers, it is an agreement we have with Customs, however as mentioned in your post it does obviously help us to understand the spend per head/product requirements for different destinations. I work for World Duty Free which is the main Travel Retail company in the UK.
I have never heard of the need to show a boarding card in any of the other retailers however and it should not apply to Smiths as they do not have to report their sales to customs in the same way as us.
It could be a Manchester Airport Group thing as when we report figures to them we have to split Eu/NEU because of rental agreements and maybe they are trying to get their other retailers to do the same.
AJ
I am confused. If this is a duty free shop then it’s in the departure lounge. Passengers have already booked in to get this far. Everything they buy is going to be consumed or personally exported. What’s the point of seeing boarding passes. It can only be market survey based.
HMRC’s only interest is in the total receipts from the shop, not individual purchases.
That’s been happening for a number of years now. Doesn’t make it any less obnoxious though. Why on Earth should anyone need to see a boarding pass if we are buying a newspaper for God’s sake?
It was the Departure Lounge branch of WH Smiths at Manchester Airport and, as I found out, they will happily serve you without you showing your boarding pass.
Whilst observing the tills from the very long queue, every single person handed over either their boarding card or boarding card and passport without hesitation (most people tend to keep one inside the other).
I find it quite sad that very few people will even ask the reason when their documents are demanded as even that step would be an improvement on the blind compliance I witnessed.
I will carry on saying no every time – if only to see the look on the face of the person demanding to see the documents.
AJ – as mentioned in this discussion, you have to have presented your boarding pass before you get to the departure lounge, therefore anyone buying duty-free will be buying for personal export. It seems odd that HMRC would require you to check the documents again. Well odd as in common sense says it is unnecessary, but not odd after 13 years of NuLab control freakery and obsessive data-mining. I can understand the marketing reason – although I still regard it as a damned impertinence.
Happened to me a month ago at Stanstead.
If you are in the Departure Lounge at some airports you can be travelling either within the EU or to somewhere outside the EU. prices will be full UK prices, sometimes with a “Duty Free” price in brackets alongside.
If you are travelling out of the EU then you do not pay tax / duty and the goods will be sole “Duty Free”, as in the old Duty Free Shops. To enable the shop to deduct the tax they will ask to see your boarding pass as proof of the fact that you are leaving the EU. It follows that in a dual departure lounge they have to ask everyone, except that books and newspapers are tax free anyway!
If you are in a dedicated “Domestic” Departure Lounge – flights to UK and other EU countries then there is no “Duty Free”, the shop does not need to see your boarding card.
As Strawbrick mentioned, most UK departure lounges are mixed mode and therefore we need to see the boarding passes to confirm whether passengers are going to an EU/NEU destination, we do not know anything about the passenger the only thing that interests us is their destination. Everyone is eligable to buy however only NEU Passengers can buy DF products which are liquor and tobacco.
That explains DF. WH Smith are selling books, magazines and confectionery, so the only explanation is the one given to the Wasp – marketing. In which case a refusal is the appropriate response.
It also tends to explain why I have never been asked for a boarding pass – I don’t buy alcohol or tobacco products 😉
Well, I fly a lot – and, I take some pleasure in dumping duty paid goods at the checkout if challenged for a boarding pass and, depending on the attitude of the checkout operator dispensing advice on reproduction and travel. Many retail drones at Schiphol seem to have been on an advanced hectoring officiousness course.
UK “Tax Free Shops” are a bunch of cheating scuzzballs who think it’s OK to routinely upwardly mis-price items because some twat thinks punters’ll pay anyway ‘coz they’re in a hurry.
WH Smiffs? – given their ciggie and water pricing – I have boycotted them for several years.
Years ago I used to be quite happy about documentation checks, now I’m surly and monosyllabic through gritted teeth.