Buy before you fly -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/1/2003
Last Visited: 2/1/2003
The scaled-down Borders concept seemed a business opportunity that the retailer, which also operates Waldenbooks airport stores, could not afford to miss. "The customer demographics in an airport actually shake out very much like a customer in a Borders store-even more than Waldenbooks," says Richard Carlson, senior project manager for Borders Group."What pulled the Borders brand in was developers were interested in that name-it had more cache, was more upscale."
Borders had the daunting task of deciding what merchandise from a typical 24,000-sq.-ft. superstore would fit into the 1,131-sq.-ft. airport store."Rather than trying to carry a little bit of everything in an airport, which we think is a mistake, we try to pick the categories that the traveler is most interested in and do a good job offering that assortment," says Carlson, who mentions that fiction is always a popular airport book category."You're not going to find a house repair book or a gardening book or an auto-repair book in an airport store.And for the most part, people aren't expecting to find those."
Gift shops have always been an airport mainstay, but toto, the latest innovation by specialty retail group CBR Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., is the gift shop for a new generation.The 900-sq.-ft. shop, which debuted summer 2002 at the Airmall at Pittsburgh International, carries everything that's trendy, fashionable, funky and fun-an assortment of desirable gifts from bamboo bowls to retro TV trays.