Last minute shopping at London Heathrow Airport

It's been a long time since I wrote a market post, and you probably won't think of the airport when we talk about markets. Let me take you for a swish around London Heathrow Airport LHR Terminal 3 today.
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LHR has 5 terminals. T1, 2 and 3 and all clustered together and are part of the original buildings. T4 and T5 are a little further away built when LHR expanded and is accessible by shuttle buses. In case you ever travel or transfer at LHR make sure you know which terminal you're going because you needed extra time to get between the terminal. If you read my previous post, you'll know I travelled last month flying out from T3. This is the outside. Very pretty!
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I think the fuchsia lights outside are part of Virgin Airlines decor and extends to its check in area inside. I didn't fly with Virgin, I just thought it was very pretty for taking photos.
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British products

Airports are a great place for shopping, they make sure they take the last penny off visitors before they leave the country. In particular, LHR always has a good range of shops in their terminals from the most exclusive international luxury brands, to many British products.

Ok, I know Tobleron isn't British! I love this package and how they've incorporated the blue, red and white from the Union Jack and a big Hello on the front. Actually I have a feeling I might see this in CDG Airport in Paris with a big Bonjour!! You'll normally see a lot of these special packaging at the airport and they charge you an arm and a leg for it. This block of chocolate cost £5. Pretty sure normal blocks of this size don't cost so much in the normal shops.
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One good chocolate brand that is British is Cadbury, a company that is nearly two hundred years old. It's not at the high end luxury chocolate, but does lots of good quality different types of chocolate. All my favourite type of chocolate are from Cadbury, and when I sent a Christmas package to Ukraine to @zirochka for Christmas I made sure I put loads of Cadbury goodies inside.
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Us Brits love to showcase our Britishness to the world, like this Big Ben.
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One of the display unit was modeled like a car and it seemed like you can take a photo with it and they will email it to you. I tried to play with it but it wouldn't let me enter my email address. Too bad.
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Cadbury's flagship product is Dairy Milk, they sell lot's of it here.
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Us Brits like our tea and have quite a few quality brands. Fortnum & Mason is over 300 years old and their hampers are very popular as gift. I've never bought them before as they're quite expensive!
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One brand that is more affordable is Twinnings. They do a lot of fruit tea and are very popular as gifts. UK has a lot more different flavours compared to overseas and I often buy them for friends, but not today. Twinnings is my everyday go to tea. It's a bit more expensive than normal high street brand but still within my price range and I always have a stock at home.

I only bought one item when I was at the airport, and that's box of Walkers shortbread. Walkers is a Scottish brand and their shortbread is very nice. Shortbread is a type of biscuit, very rich with butter that melts in your mouth. I bought a box for my friend. It's the one at the bottom shelf had special UK packaging to show case our Britishness. Of course that cost double the price compared to normal supermarkets! Never mind, it's for a good friend.
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If you haven't yet, check out my latest HPUD Guessing Contest to guess where I'm flying to. The contest closes on Sunday and you have a chance to win 20 HBD!!

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Cadbury is now my favorite too 😍 I didn't know I love hot cocoa until I tasted the one from Cadbury. And their candies are love from the first bite :D :D
I hope you had a safe journey. Enjoy your trip and time with friends.
Hugs!

Snowpea and Mary says hi to Sonia ❤️. They are with me on my travels

Aww... I was hoping you'll take them with you. So great! Now I am looking forward to next posts ;o)
Sonia says hello and sends !LUV

You're killing me with those chocolates. I went to get a little piece of the one I have on hand to enjoy reading.

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Yummy! Hershey's are very nice!!

chooooooocooooooolaaaates, Give me some @livinguktaiwan 😅

Ha ha! Chocolate is always a winner!

you have made walking through the dreaded "duty free" area an interesting experience. One I detest!!

You can't avoid the duty free area, you're forced to walk through without realising it!! Anyway, who doesn't love chocolate 😁

good point well made!!

It's great to hear that you're writing a market post! The airport is not a common location for market activities, so it will be interesting to hear about your experience at London Heathrow Terminal 3. Airports can definitely be a shopping destination, especially for travelers looking to make the most of their time before departing. London Heathrow Airport, in particular, seems to offer a wide range of shopping options, including both high-end luxury brands and local British products. It's a great opportunity for visitors to browse and purchase items they may not be able to find elsewhere.

Why are you summarising my post?

All of my favourite things - Cadbury's chocolate (my gran worked at their Port Elizabeth factory when I was small & used to buy a big bag of broken honeycomb chunks, it was my absolute favourite!) I love their displays in your photos!
Real butter Shortbread is another favourite! Where did you fly to 🙃...I had to try, am still thinking and will make time to do a thorough investigation today😆
I see even Heathrow is not that busy, I'm sure it's the same in many airports across the globe with airlines destroyed by lockdowns, I know that's the case here, very sad for the staff
Your photos are lovely indeed!

Lucky you as a young girl! The honeycomb is Crunchie? That's very nice but sometimes I find a whole bar is a bit too much and starts to stick nyo my teeth 😅

Heathrow did seem a little quieter than usual, not sure if it's because we're still coming out from COVID or whether its the post Christmas low season.

Yes it is but then I have such a sweet tooth😉
So many of our local airlines closed down, the runways at all our airports used to be full, nowadays it's so quiet!

Oh! So you're in London? hehehe.

For sure your friend would be happy knowing that you bought some shortbread for her/him.

I'm leaving London to go to wherever in I'm supposed to be going...

Soooooooooooo flying via Paris huh? Why did you have to trigger me into another Google session :-(

I love that T3 shopping area. When I was younger, I always said that if I won the lottery, I'd buy a first class ticket on SIA, check bon everything I owned and then check in wearing just shorts and a t shirt and carrying and buy everything I needed in there....there you go, another insight into Nathen's weird world lol

Hope you're having a great trip :-)

If I win the lottery, I'm never going to travel cattle class again. Been in business a few times when I used to work, but never first class. If I do, I'm going to do is the classy way, but I have a feeling hubby might rolls up in his jeans and T shirt, bit like you 😁

They love pink, hehe. Seeing those chocolates make me want to grab one.. We still have some here from CNY haha..

That's the first thing I saw when the got to the terminal, I think it's very soothing for travellers.

Hope you had a nice celebration!

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I'm not sure if it's applicable in other countries but here in PH the prices of goods double when they're inside local airports. I haven't shopped in the airport except for meals but I definitely look strolling around pretty shops and luxurious brands all in one place.

I'm pretty sure it's the same all around the world. Maybe you really get a better deal for some luxury products because it's tax free, but for food and gifts etc, I find they're so expensive.

Chocolate, what a passion! Heh heh!

It's wonderful to go shopping in the airport shops, I really enjoy it, it's also true that I'm a shopping lover!

I think many people love shopping ... and chocolate!

Yes, I think so too hehe!
Chocolate!🤤🤤🤤

Nice post - and drat, I was hoping to pick up a hint for where you might be flying for your other post !
!ALIVE

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Ha ha!! Nice try!

The duty free area… urghhh hahaha 🤣
But it does make for some cool photographic captures.
The Big Ben and car is cool. Too bad it didn’t let you enter your email.
I lovvveeeeee chocolate… and shortbread… nom nom
Have a great Friday!

Both are lovely aren't they? Always a favourite

YES! hahaha 🤣
Anytime…

I love to eat chocolate. This place is heaven for chocolate lovers. Well traveling plus shopping is more fun..!

Thanks for dropping by

You're making me hungry, ma'am! Toblerone is one of my favorite chocolates, too. You feel the quality when you eat the chocolate lol.

Totally agree with you, I love how you sometimes come across bits of nuts, and sometimes bits of honey

Airports are great shopping places, especially if you want to get something unique to the country--like chocolates! @jarvie and I did some great chocolate shopping at the Amsterdam airport, we wanted to take home some good European chocolate to our friends! Cool pictures!

I hope your friends enjoyed the chocolate! Did you get be any goodies from Norway as well, their products are quite unique.

Yes, I got more chocolate there. It seemed as that was the gift I got everyone this trip.

I guess I need to pay more attention when I am at the airport! I feel like everything is so high priced there, so I usually just pass it by. Unless it is fast food and we are hungry or something like that. I think I bought a book or a magazine at the airport once, but again it was really overpriced. I guess like you said, you are kind of a captive audience and they try to squeeze every penny out of you!

I'm pretty sure so many things are over priced at the airport. All they need to do is to change the packaging a little, call it airport exclusive and they be will charge you double for it!! They even do that for alcohol sometimes!

That's crazy. I guess it doesn't surprise me though!

They are so expensive in the airport.

But many people still seem to buy them

Mi favorito el Toblerone🤩

they're certainly very popular with many people

There is a little store just outside the duty free area where you can find Walkers and chocolates cheaper, but still airport prices. Last time I was there I bought Walkers in the duty free and in the other store to split my losses.

Also I would give a try to Fortum & Mason, it is really expensive, but it is worth it. Love the lemon curd from there.

That's a good way to buy products to lower the average costs. I never thought of buying lemon curd from Fortnum & Mason, even though I know their hampers are very popular. Maybe I'll poke and see what's inside their hampers next time, they must include all the most popular items

The airport price of Toblerone is the normal price we have in here. 🤣 That block looks big, so that would probably be $10 here. That’s what Filipinos from abroad usually gift their families when they come home because it’s so much cheaper abroad (for obvious reasons haha). I love Toblerone first and then Cadbury. Their Dairy Milk with raisins is one of the very few foods with raisins that I eat. :P

I think the chocolate taste a bit different from different countries even if they're the same brand. Like I used to buy Cadbury's in Hong Kong, but they just taste a bit different from those in UK, or even Australia is nicer. I reckon it's to do with the water or quality of the cocoa beans, maybe that's another reason people like to buy them from overseas. As to raisins, I'm not a big fan of them, I find they always end up sticking to my teeth 😅!!!

Duty free shops at airports you need to put blinkers on and not look at any products, more often than not more expensive !LOLZ

Nice shot of the entrance to Virgin terminal, warm inviting glow.

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I didn't even know they were catholic.

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I agree with you,airports tend to charge you an arm and a leg for most stuff, normally I just walk quickly through as well. As to the Virgin entrance, it was very soothing, makes the beginning of one's journey very calm and happy. Nice way to start travelling

Large airports over inflate their prices, shops used to be set to the side now they surround you everywhere.

Enjoyed your flight I hope, last time I went I found seat spacing very limited when doing long distance flying, eight hours being crammed in!

Shopping at the airport feels like robbery in a daylight, especially when it comes to food and souveniers 😂 Sometimes I find the bargain in the perfume sections though. Hope ypu arrived safely at your destination :)

Arriver safe and sound at my destination thanks. It's nice to be travelling again after so long

I was on the plane first time in years too. Still my least favourite way of traveling, that always stresses me out 🙈

ok you're not going to believe this! hahahaha

almost at the SAME exact time as you... on January 31 - I was IN heathrow - IN TERMINAL 3... hahahah and,.... wait for it... FLYING VIRGIN AIRLINES!!! lol

that is crazy! hahahahaha

I actually was stuck in a little shop called Accessorize - and finding all kinds of fun little things there!!! I totally loved that shop! But i got stuck there so long that I lost track of time and when I looked up to find my gate - it said "closing" LOLOL

I ran for 10 minutes to get to the gate! hahahaha

That's so cool that we were in the same place almost at the same time! But yuou know what's weird? we would have walked right past each other and would have been none the wiser LOL

I wish i saw that cadbury big ben - i would have taken a pic of it too ! hehehe