Often when I’m at an airport, I wonder who it is that is going into that expensive luggage shop or fashion store at an airport and buying something so expensive they can afford to stay in business.  I also wonder if that really is the best use of space in an airport.  I suppose if someone is willing to pay for the space, it must be on some level.

One of the most frustrating parts of being inside a terminal is the prices at newstands.  It’s the land of the $1.50 candy bar and the $10 magazine.   Want a bottle of water? No problem, please pay $3.00.   Food isn’t much better and while it is a tad more expensive, it’s often much worse than that you can access from the same restaurant outside the airport.

Well, things should be more expensive at an airport.  Space for shops and restaurants is much more expensive than most places and the logistics of stocking them is much more difficult at most airports.  I’m OK with a bit more expensive for the real estate.

But why don’t we have better solutions to hold prices down a bit?  Ever seen a vending kiosk like what they have in Japan?  The things you can get in a vending machine in Japan are stunning.  I wouldn’t be surprised to learn one day that you can buy a Smart Car in a Japanese vending machine.   Why aren’t airports looking at solutions like this?  Do we really care if a person rings up our magazine or candy bar or sewing kit or sinus medicine?  I don’t.  To the contrary, let me slide my credit card through a swipe and get what I want and be on my way. 

You can stock vending machines more densely than what most newstands stock merchandise and, hey, you don’t have to pay for nearly as many staff to keep them stocked.   You can also warehouse much of your stock off property and have a person or person(s) re-stocking the machines even several times a day.

Restaurants and food in general are a different thing.  The problem here is that large companies bid for a multi-year contract to provide food services under a variety of brands.  For instance, ARAMark is one such company.  They license the brand but staff and operate the restaurants on their own.  In many cases, the quality control that one sees exercised at that brand’s restaurants away from the airport is far superior to what one encounters at the airport.

Visit a Starbucks at the airport and you’ll see what I mean.  That isn’t a Starbuck’s employee and he/she isn’t trained to the same standard and isn’t even necessarily kept in that position day in and day out so they learn the business properly.  Often it’s someone with cursory training making bad coffee beverages that cost 30% more than what you find at a typical Starbucks.

This old and archaic system is, in my opinion, due for an overhaul.  These contracts net the companies huge profits (almost guaranteed even) and those companies, in turn, fork over large chunks of cash to the airport agencies as well.   Why aren’t we allowing a variety of companies to bid for individual space to operate their brands with the same level of quality found elsewhere?

I don’t think food and beverage prices would drop.  Not at all, really.  However, I do think choice and quality would go up considerably.  Why should we believe that Starbucks or McDonald’s or anyone else would be so afraid of airport operations?  These companies have already dealt with difficult logistics and proven themselves more than capable of earning a profit. 

And if they don’t, they’ll go out of business and someone else may try their hand at operating a different business.  Choice is up at many airports and the offerings often far outnumber what we used to see in the 80’s and 90’s but quality is down, at least in my experience, and regional offerings have been squeezed out of airports altogether.   Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to get good regional BBQ in Atlanta at the airport?  Or how about a great hot dog at JFK?   Or Chicago deep dish pizza in O’Hare? 

Airports seem to be falling farther and farther behind and I think that has mostly to do with food service contracts that often last as long as 10 years.  Let’s get some more competitive bidding in place and break up the consortiums while inviting some regional diversity at these airports.

Filed under: Airports by ajax