Manhattan is full of bargains

There we were, hopelessly lost in the New York subway. The clock was ticking; we were supposed to meet some friends for lunch and there was no option but to swallow our pride and ask for help. I approached two young women loaded with shopping bags. ‘No idea, mate. We’re from Brighton.’ When we eventually crawled out of the subway, my wife and I decided to play a new game: spot the British shopper. The women were especially entertaining — they hunt in packs, stay in slightly grotty hotels in Midtown, camp out at Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and the cheap electronics shops on Broadway, and generally behave like children in a sweet-shop. For Manhattan may be prohibitively expensive by US standards, but to Brits it is a shopping heaven.

Identical goods sold by identical retailers cost much less in America. Even I was shocked to discover last weekend that a top-of-the-range video iPod costs $379.99,