Airport Whisky

This is out of sequence, but I am only in the mood for a quick post today…

On my way back to Canada, I had a five hour stopover in Amsterdam.  I spent this time wandering shop to shop, reading books, watching some video on my computer, the usual airport time killers.

At one point, I went in to the duty free to have a look around at the alcoholic beverages.  There was the usual selection there of wine, beer, and spirits.  I noticed that the section containing the whisky had a glass case with a couple of posh looking bottles and went in for a closer look.  Here is one in particular that they had on offer

 

 

Perhaps the resolution is not clear enough to read the price… so here is a close up:

 

 

Now I enjoy a drink as much as the next person, I quite like some whisky (Laphroaig is my choice in case you were wondering)  I even realize that some whisky is way way out of my price range hitting these sort of 3000+ Euro per bottle prices.  The one pictured above is the equivalent of 4,409 Canadian or 4,402 USD in case you were wondering.

 

The thing that made me wonder was who buys this sort of bottle at the airport.  It is not exactly an impulse buy, even if I was a Russian oligarch (who we know are all billionaires) it seems unlikely to me that I would be strolling through Schipol  on my way to the first class line and suddenly stop and buy a four thousand dollar bottle of whisky.  If I was inclined to purchase this, surely it is the sort of thing I would be doing from a specialty shop, or dealer.  What kind of person has the kind of disposable income where they have a few grand sitting in there pocket in case they get thirsty?

 

I was also wondering who at the duty free is shopping for cases of beer.  When going on a transatlantic flight, 24 beers don’t seem like the kind of carry on I really want to have with me.