Using Duty Free to jump border line not against the rules
Posted April 22, 2011 12:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SOUTH SURREY (NEWS1130) – Long waits at the border are headaches in themselves. You don’t need someone cutting ahead of you to make things worse. But News1130 is finding out people making use of the Duty Free shop aren’t doing anything wrong.
When customers are finished shopping at Pacific Highway, they get back in line way ahead of the pack. But John Tompkins with West Coast Duty Free says anyone who doesn’t buy anything is sent to the back of the line. “We ensure that everybody makes a purchase, just to be fair.”
“I don’t want to plug up my parking lot with a bunch of line jumpers,” he explains. “That’s not fair to our customers that have spent money in here and are now being delayed.”
There is a catch: there’s no minimum purchase.
“I’d love to [have one],” Tompkins adds. “Especially on busy days, just to prevent the odd person that comes through and buys a bottle of water. We try to discourage that, but you can’t make somebody spend $20 or whatever.”
It may seem like people are whizzing through the Duty Free line, but Tompkins insists their lineup can be just as long as the main one.
