I don’t so much have a bee in my bonnet as a whole hornets’ nest about the lack of Sense of Place in most airport retail offers. The SASCO shop shows what can be done with investment, imagination and a real understanding of a culture and its associated crafts and products.
Airports
Zooming into and out of Zayed International
If I can’t be home for Valentine’s Day, I can at least send a selfie. Did you really buy two bottles of Cognac my wife asked?
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Airports
Why Bacha will be the hottest coffee in the airport world
If Hermès was a coffee brand it would be Bacha. And if there was a croissant heaven, I promise you a Bacha raspberry and cinnamon croissant would be served at the gates.
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Events
Scaling new heights and discovering One World in the Year of the Dragon
What a great occasion it was. One that perhaps marked Lotte Duty Free’s true coming of age as a world-class airport retailer outside its native land.
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Airports
Mastering the perfect serve with Aperol Spritz
The perfectly served Aperol Spritz inspired me to play this lovely passing shot straight out of the Carlos Alcaraz handbook {Note: No passengers were harmed in the making of this photograph}.
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Airports
Up, up and away again in 2024
Ben was doing what all good airport commercial managers should do, spending time on the shop floor, watching, evaluating. What’s working. What’s not.
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Travel
Finding triumphant evidence of Merriam-Webster’s word of the year at Qatar Duty Free
Now here’s what you call a driving force in airport retail. About the only thing that can stop (fortunately) Qatar Duty Free Senior Vice President Thabet Musleh is the brake on his buggy.
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Airports
Getting my KIX en route – thrifty sixth
Digital is very much to the fore in-store but I’m not sure Clé de Peau Beauté had me in mind when this superb technology was created.
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Travel
Up close with the Masters of Time and landing a big Hennessy scoop
Oh dear, I don’t think Bovet 1822 will be calling for my CV just yet…
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Airports
Spell it backwards or forwards, wow is wow
“We have one of the best buildings, I would say, of any airport in the world. We want to create a passenger experience matching exactly to that status.” And that is precisely what is taking shape at Terminal A.
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Travel
Typecast at Hong Kong Airport with a beautiful reminder from Hermès
For month upon miserable month through the pandemic, HKIA resembled a cross between a ghost town and a military hospital. You could almost sense the tumbleweed about to blow along the arrivals hall. How good it is to see the place humming once more.
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Airports
How a €3,000-plus lucky lighter proves it really does pay to shop duty free
Irish auctioneer Gormleys is putting the lighter under the hammer – hopefully not literally – with a guide price of €2,300. Already it has attracted a bid of €2,900 and that’s likely to go much higher.
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Airports
Somrus tells it straight up but a columnist ends up on the rocks
This is why Americans think the economy is terrible,” wrote the irate critic on X (formerly Twitter) above a photo of a burger, fries and three sachets of ketchup (I know, I know, a journalist should never reveal his sauces).