News

Retail Top 100 2012, No. 87: Retail at airports

May 16, 2012

With malls sales stagnating during the recession, many mass-market retailers began searching for more fertile locations. Places where people might have time on their hands — and nowhere else to go. "Airports are becoming, really, a service facility, like a shopping mall," said Jose Gomez, senior vice president for business development for fashion retailer Mango which recently opened two stores at San Francisco International and one in the Orlando airport. Whether it's because they are on vacation or charging to expense accounts, "the experience of traveling tends to put people in a mode that they're prepared to spend money," says Paul McGinn, president of MarketPlace Development, which manages and leases retail space at Philadelphia International Airport and LaGuardia. "It is also a venue where — and this is always a funny thing to talk about — but there's an awful lot of people that are motivated by guilt. That certainly inspires a lot of sales."

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