Obviously I am not naive enough to expect airport prices anywhere to be low or comparable with those in the real world. But Malaga Airport takes the art of fleecing innocent travellers to a new level.
When you land at the airport and come out of the arrivals hall there is a duty free shop which has a refrigerated beer display unit selling San Miguel. As I often arrive late and enjoy a beer after a long journey, I could be considered part of the target market for the beer selling tactic but I have always been put off by the price - €9 for 6 small cans, about 350% more than the same beer would cost at the supermarket.
It's the same all over the airport with sandwiches, drinks and snacks at the top end of the range and too rich for my blood. The prices in the London Airports are at or just above normal high street prices but the Malaga Airport prices are so high it smacks of an attempt to fleece foreigners.
Even cigarettes in the Duty Free shop, an area which is supposed to offer travellers a chance for a bargain, are about 15% more than the normal "estanco" prices. There is actually an estanco just opposite the terminal entrance which sells cartons of cigarettes at normal, not airport rip off, prices.
As for the shops selling souvenirs, fashion items and electrical goods, they are a joke. They are so expensive that you rarely see them doing any business. Even the fast food outlets like Pizza Express and Burger King are expensive - I quite often see holiday-makers pulling faces when they see the prices on the boards.
In these times of grave economic and financial crisis for Spain (see Spain's Fred Goodwin has sunk his country's credibility) you might have thought that there would be plenty of deals available, cut-throat competition and desperate bids by retailers to get the punters buying. But in the airport and beyond I don't see much different - the restaurants in tourist areas are actually quite expensive and the retailers seem pretty much the same complacent bunch as ever.
As for the beer in the arrivals hall - I noticed on my latest trip that they had at last done something about the prices . . . put them up. Now €9,60 for six small beers. Cheers!
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