Shop Icelandic! pleas businesswoman
Tempted by a Christmas shopping trip away from Iceland? Photo: AFP
An Icelandic businesswoman has hit out against an Icelandair advertisement offering Icelanders cheap deals on Christmas shopping trips abroad.
Many Iceland Monitor readers will have seen the regular offers advertised by the Icelandic national carrier and some may have happily taken advantage to make a quick trip abroad.
The airline’s latest advert, however, made Dóra Sif Ingadóttir anything but happy. To use her words, Icelandair’s invitation to fly off to one of seven renowned shopping cities to do some Christmas shopping “made her blood boil.”
“If everybody goes to a renowned shopping city abroad to do their Christmas shopping, I shall end up stuck on my own in my little family-run shop, which employs both my mother and me,” writes Ingadóttir, wholesaler for the bíumbíum children’s clothes shop in Reykjavik, on her Facebook page.
“If everybody goes to a renowned shopping city abroad to do their Christmas shopping, only limited VAT revenue will make it into the State coffers. There have been cutbacks in the health service and there is an embargo on our fish – we need that revenue. I need that revenue. Everybody in retail needs that revenue,” she continues.
Ingadóttir points out that she has great respect for Icelandair and has used their services many times, but warns:
“Think twice before you book a trip abroad specifically to do your Christmas shopping – other countries have so much more and better to offer than just shops.”
The offending advert and Ingadóttir’s full status (in Icelandic) can be seen below.
Ég læt svo sjaldan í mér heyra hérna á Facebook þó ég hafi skoðanir á öllu milli himins og jarðar! Ég reyni líka að...
Posted by Dora Sif Ingadottir on Tuesday, 25 August 2015
