Originally Posted by
tdracer
Like so many things, the short answer is: it depends. Washington state has some of the highest liquor taxes in the US, so it's not hard for Duty Free to beat the local prices - but I seldom buy hard liquor here. I take regular trips to Colorado (very low liquor taxes), and load up when I'm there.
When I'm headed somewhere out-of-country where access to liquor is tight, and/or uncertain (Indonesia being a prime example), I'll usually pick up something at Duty Free for use on the trip (the Duty Free in the Singapore Airport or Incheon airports is pretty decent).
On the return trip, I typically only visit Duty Free to spend whatever local currency I have left over - often on chocolate rather than booze. The exception being if there is some local liquor that's not readily available here (Soju when in Korea comes to mind).
The next time you go through CGK I would recommend East Indies Archipelago gin - distilled in Bali and well worth a taste.