I wonder if there are other goods with similarly high gaps in price.
I wonder if there are other goods with similarly high gaps in price.
For example, I'm in Ireland (relatively HCOL), and I regularly visit Slovakia (relatively LCOL). When I used to smoke, it was 3.30/pack in Slovakia and 12.50/pack in Ireland. I could legally bring 40 packs back with me, so €368 to be saved - back then that would not only cover flights, but also a couple of nights in a half-decent hotel. (sunken-cost assumed, obviously).
But to compare, for example, an m3pro macbook pro, the difference is €100 - at which point you're really only juggling the difference between 23% and 20% VAT rates.
Outside of europe the gloves come off. Brazil, for example, has famously high import duties - so smuggling the same macbook to Brazil would have a much greater pay-off.