Airports

• A study by The Hustle revealed that at 4 major U.S. airports, food and beverage items cost up to twice what they would cost on the street, even though most airports have policies restricting prices to no more than 10-15% higher than what the would cost outside the airport.,
• According to Sarah Imberman, head of S. Levy Foods, which operates stores in 4 U.S. airports, four factors that contribute to higher prices at airports include increased rent prices, including a percent of total sales which is paid to the airport; higher costs of construction; increased security, which impacts operational and logistical costs; and higher wages for employees as compared to similar establishments outside of the airport.
• Another business owner familiar with airport pricing, Lynn Gordon, notes that there is a lack of storage space in airports, which reduces efficiency.
• In addition, since airports have a captive audience, they are able to charge more for products and not lose sales to competitors.
• While airport food is expensive currently, it is actually closer to street pricing now than it was in the past. This is partially a result of airports restricting pricing to within 10-15% of street prices, but has also been impacted by the presence of more price-conscious travelers since airlines were deregulated in the 1970s, resulting in lower costs to fly and making air travel more accessible to the general public.

Theaters/Cinemas

• Concession items sold in movie theaters are two to over four times more expensive than the same items sold in other settings.
• The most expensive movie theater concession item as compared to street pricing is popcorn, at a mark up of 4.7 times.
• One major factor in concession pricing at movie theaters is a very low profit margin on ticket prices. On average, movie theaters pay around 70% of all ticket sales to the movie's distributor, with this cost being higher in the first few weeks of the movie's release. Therefore, in order to cover expenses and make a profit, movie theaters turn to high profit margins on concessions.
• As a result of theaters making much more money on concessions, the price of these items has increased at a much higher rate than the price of movie tickets. After adjusting for inflation, the price of a movie ticket has only increased by 108% since 1920 while the price of popcorn has increased 1,188%.
• In addition, studies show that keeping ticket prices down encourages more people to go to the movies and that they are more willing to spend extra on secondary items, such as concessions. This motivates theaters to continue the pricing structure of low ticket prices and high concession prices.