this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
95 points (98.0% liked)

United Kingdom

4083 readers
242 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

For me, the reason it sucks is that it plays into the hands of huge homogeneous businesses, while making life very difficult for companies supplying nice products in low volume, DTC.
Instead of me being able to order a kilo of nice stinky cheese from a french shop (or small UK shop), I either have to hope one of the supermarkets starts carrying it, or hop on the ferry and go to Super U myself.

(Honestly, I can see myself doing more day-trips to france at this rate! Good excuse to fill the boot of the car with produce, assuming exemptions are in place for personal use)

[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

or hop on the ferry and go to Super U myself.

I mean, there there are going to be other costs that dominate in that case anyway (if someone's going purely for the purpose of purchasing cheese), but if you're personally carrying the thing, is cheese duty-free?

googles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty-free_shop

A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will then pay duties and taxes in their destination country (depending on its personal exemption limits and tariff regime).

Duty-free are abolished for intra-EU (inside the EU tax union) travelers but are retained for travelers whose final destination is outside the EU. They also sell to intra-EU travelers but with appropriate taxes.

In 2021, with Brexit duty free are reintroduced in three British nations: England, Wales and Scotland. This allows reduced taxes on wine, Champagne or Prosecco, beer and spirits as well as on cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, or tobacco.[17]

Hmm. Doesn't really answer the question, as that's not specific to the UK and the second bit is about people buying in the UK to take goods to the EU.

looks further

https://www.gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use/print

You can bring some goods from abroad without having to pay UK tax or duty, if they’re either:

  • for your own use
  • you want to give them as a gift

Allowance for other goods

You can bring in other goods worth up to £390 (or up to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat).

Declaring goods made or produced in the EU

You do not need to pay any tax or duties on personal goods you bring into Great Britain as long as they are within your personal allowances.

looks up the price of a Dover-Calais round-trip ferry ticket

About £190. I assume that that includes any cost of clearing customs, that there isn't any additional fee.

So my guess is that traveling to the EU in person -- while an option -- to obtain up to £390 in goods is probably, even excluding the time and other costs, going to be more expensive than ordering it, even with the processing fee being discussed in the article. But if someone's going to be going to the EU anyway for some other reason and just picks up the cheese on the way back, it could pay off relative to having it shipped in.

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 2 points 7 months ago

In honesty, it's also an excuse for a jolly.
"Darling, we're out of your favourite cheese, I guess it's time for a long weekend on the continent."
French wine has always been a lot cheaper for comparable quality, anyone coming back from holiday with less than 4 boxes raises eyebrows!