“It would be crazy to buy this at home,” says Campbell, standing over a trolley laden with 10 liters of Scotch and three cases of beer at an out-of-town shopping mall in Calais. Sure, there’s the five hour journey to consider plus the cost of a ferry ticket or a ride through the Channel Tunnel. But think of the savings. That hooch-intended to lubricate the winter holidays–would cost 50 percent more at home. Besides, the fuel needed to refill his car is 25 percent cheaper in France. Says Campbell: “I come over three times a year. It’s got to be worthwhile.”
Plenty more Brits are doing the same. Christmas is coming and retailers in the ports of northern France are stacking their shelves for the annual spasm of frenzied shopping. Their best customers: the “booze cruise” crowd from Britain. In recent years, the migration–hastened by the opening of the tunnel in 1994–has become as much a part of Britain’s holiday season as a trip to Santa’s grotto or the New Year’s sales. “It’s developed into a British institution,” says Sharron Livingston, author of the “Channel Hopper’s Guide,” which offers shopping tips. Next month, more than 200,000 Brits are expected to head for the nearest patch of France to burden their cars with axle-straining loads of cut-rate alcohol and tobacco.
The shoppers can thank the single market principles of the European Union. Back in 1992, the EU’s rules forced Britain to drop its restrictions on the amount of wine or spirits that citizens could lug home from another member state. France’s near-zero rates of duty (the tax paid on alcohol) means a bottle of wine that costs five pounds in England can be found for half the price at a French supermarket. Beer is even cheaper.
This winter, currency fluctuations are gladdening the cheapskates, too. The dismal performance of the Euro–down more than 10 percent against the pound since its launch in 1999–is great news for the British, who have stayed out of the EU’s single-currency zone. Once that bottle of claret was a bargain; now it’s a giveaway. And it’s not only the booze that looks tempting. Cat food, washing powder, coffee and a score of other items are available in France at prices that make British consumers blink. “If we had a bigger car I’d be buying some garden furniture,” says retired civil servant Hugh Griffiths as he filled his trunk with wine outside a Calais supermarket.
Most booze cruisers don’t stray farther than the local hypermarkets and cash-and-carry warehouses set up to catch their trade around the ports of Calais and Boulogne. They’ve come to spend not explore. On any December weekend British cars will far outnumber French at the outsize Cite Europe mall just yards from the tunnel’s mouth. Olivier Versmisse, manager of the cavernous Franglais’ outlet, which flies the British and EU flags, says that more than 80 percent of shoppers are British. The canny arrive early. “It’s a long Christmas for us,” says Versmisse. “It begins in October.”
It’s a bonanza shared with the British retailers. Plenty of the best-known booze cruise venues are British-owned, including branches of several supermarket chains offering the standard favorites of the British drinker. Looking for familiar bottle of Australian or Californian wine? Or a range of British beers? They’re all waiting on the shelves in France, often labelled in English with a guide to the equivalent price back home. For their part, the ferry and tunnel operators are offering return trips to France for as little as 12 to pull in the Christmas trippers. The truly idle traveler needn’t even hit French soil. On the P&O Stena line, the crew will take down your booze order on embarkation and start loading your car–stowed on the lower decks–as soon as the ferry reaches French waters.
The only losers are the British brewers and liquor stores. As much as 15 percent of all wine consumed in Britain is now arriving in car trunks from France. “A huge part of the market just isn’t there anymore,” says Quentin Rappoport of the Wine and Spirit Association in London. “It has moved across the Channel.” The only answer, say the retailers, would be a reduction in the rate of duty in Britain to match the French. The booze cruisers would drink to that.
