BOSTON, December 3, 2012 – AIRMALL® USA, developer of the leading airport concessions model in North America, is pleased to announce that two concepts at the AIRMALL at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) have won 2012 Airports Council International- North America (ACI-NA) Excellence in Airport Concessions Awards. International Shoppes-Virtual Wall Shop earned second place in the Best Innovative Consumer Experience Concept or Practice category. Automatic Apparel received third place in the Best New Consumer Service Concept category.
“At AIRMALL, we’re always looking to add new concepts to our concessions mix that are cutting-edge and offer solutions to travelers on the go,” said Michael Caro, vice president of AIRMALL Boston. “The International Shoppes-Virtual Wall Shop and Automatic Apparel are perfect examples of outside-of-the-box concepts that help to enhance a traveler’s experience. We’re proud that these units have been recognized by the ACI-NA for their innovation and focus on customer service.”
In early 2012, the International Shoppes-Virtual Wall Shop created a temporary unit in Terminal B at BOS that travelers could shop at while a permanent unit was being built. As a virtual store, the concept offered an innovative solution to ensuring that travelers could still purchase a wide variety of top-shelf duty-free merchandise, from limited space, by using a hand scanner to scan barcodes on the virtual store shelf, which is a very large picture applied to a wall. Once travelers made their purchases, they would then have their goods packaged and hand-delivered to them at their gate.
Automatic Apparel (located on Terminal E)is a unique retail concept that provides immediate access to traveling essentials—with a focus on basic clothing items that would otherwise not be available, as well as sunglasses, ballet flats, umbrellas and headphones— any time of day through a self-serve vending unit. Automatic Apparel was founded by a Boston-based ACDBE operator. Nothing at Automatic Apparel costs more than $15. The unit is also a greener retail solution by consuming minimal energy to operate.
The ACI-NA Excellence in Airport Concessions Awardswere announced during the 2012 ACI-NA Airport Concessions Conference in Denver in November. The purpose of the ACI-NA Excellence in Airport Concessions Contest is to inspire creativity in the industry and to recognize innovative and outstanding airport concessions.
AIRMALL Boston currently manages and develops the retail concessions program for Boston Logan International Airport in terminals B and E, which represents a total of 90,000 square feet of retail concession space. The AIRMALL at BOS includes more than 35 restaurants and bars, nearly 20 specialty retail units, 13 news and gift stores, and a host of other services.
For more information about AIRMALL USA, visit www.airmallusa.com.
About AIRMALL® USA, Inc.
AIRMALL® USA, Inc. is the developer and manager of the retail, food and beverage operations at Pittsburgh International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport (terminals B and E), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The leading airport concessions model in North America, AIRMALL USA continues to post among the highest per-passenger spends on the continent and consistently receives accolades for innovation and customer service. AIRMALL USA is owned by Prospect Capital Corporation, a leading New York investment company founded in 1988. For more information on AIRMALL USA, visit www.airmallusa.com.
