A recent study found that restaurants in airports and other public spaces were charging up to three times the price of their competitors. The practice is illegal under street pricing laws, but some restaurants are still doing it anyway.
The sweet beers are a new trend in the beer industry. They are expensive, but they taste better than your average beer. This is because many of these beers use rare and expensive ingredients to make them taste better. In order to sell these at a higher price, restaurants have been using a tactic called street pricing.
Airport restaurants are using “street pricing” rules to rip off customers, charging $28 for a beer and $11 for fries.
on August 2, 2021 by Gary Leff
Airports are paid by airlines and merchants. Passengers pay a facility fee as part of their flight ticket (known as a “head tax”), although these are controlled by the government. As a consequence, travelers are the product, not the consumer, of an airport.
Airports in the United States, on the other hand, are primarily owned by governments and controlled by politically selected boards. Customers’ anger is important, which is why many cities have laws requiring merchants to charge just a bit more than “street pricing.” Prices are usually limited at 10% higher than they would be outside the airport, although this isn’t often enforced — particularly by the inept Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates many New York-area airports.
Consider the $27.85++ Sam Adams Summer Ale at New York LaGuardia, which includes a 10% Covid fee that is “not a tip for workers.”
All of this makes me laugh, especially the extra 10% “COVID Recovery Fee” that doesn’t go to employees. twitter.com/Bq9rHJqek7
July 7, 2021 — Cooper Lund (@cooperlund)
When confronted, the airport concessions business said that the price was a “mistake,” but that they were also providing greater value than they were being given credit for.
Yikes. AWESOME CATCH! That Sam Summer **price** has been changed because it was inaccurate. + Please note that all other pricing are for 23oz pours. Cooperlund, Cooperlund, Cooperlund, Cooperlund, Cooperlund, Cooper We are grateful for your spotting. Send us a DM the next time you’re in town – it’s on us.
^OTG
July 7, 2021 — OTG (@OTGexp)
The pricing of beer at LaGuardia and fries at Newark were “incorrectly posted” and “quickly corrected,” according to an OTG representative, to $18.15 and $8.45, respectively. Larry Schwartz, a former lieutenant of Governor Andrew Cuomo, is one of OTG’s top executives.
“As a result of these posted-pricing issues, our in-house menu teams have been working hard to verify pricing across all locations is, in fact, rendering correctly,” said Michael Marchese, a spokesman for the company.
Customers who have been “overcharged” will not, of course, get a refund. The Port Authority, embarrassed by the call-out, has ordered businesses to check their rates to verify that they are in line with street pricing regulations.
However, it’s not unexpected that airport food sellers are costly, in addition to being poor.
- Rent at the airport is often much more than rent elsewhere in the area. Labor expenses are rising as well, whether as a result of the requirement to locate personnel who can pass background checks or as a result of municipal legislation mandating higher minimum salaries (New York airports will be $19 in 2023). Bringing supplies and ingredients inside the airport is extremely expensive, since it necessitates dealing with several merchants and passing through security. That’s the financial side of things.
- Passengers, on the other hand, are a mostly captive audience. The government prohibits people from carrying drinks past the security checkpoint; “no outside beverages” isn’t simply a regulation at the movie theater; it’s the law. And, at many airports, there is no competition among vendors since many of the well-known brands – such as Wendy’s or TGI Friday’s – are really owned by the same management firm, such as OTG or Delaware North, which licenses the trademark. Customers, who are frequently faced with lengthy queues and limited time during connections, don’t have much opportunity to compare shop in the first place.
Aside from the price, has there ever been anything more sad than ordering from a CBGB’s at Newark Airport through an OTG iPad?
