Selling Retailers on Opening Shop at DFW: Airport Executives Push to Broaden Concessions Options
May 30--LAS VEGAS -- Michael Baldwin wants a FedEx Kinko's store inside Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.
Baldwin, an executive in the airport's revenue-management department, has spent a year and a half cajoling the Dallas-based chain to put one of its printing-and-shipping stores inside an airport terminal for the first time.
Last week, he traveled 1,100 miles to pay the company another visit, at a sprawling booth in Las Vegas. Baldwin was one of six executives from D/FW Airport attending the annual convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the world's largest trade show for retailers.
The airport, which is trying to fill its five terminals with restaurants and shops, sent its largest delegation to this year's show. Some of the targets:
A workout facility, such as 24 Hour Fitness or Lifetime Fitness.
A women's clothing store whose name was kept under wraps.
A printing-and-shipping store, such as FedEx Kinko's or The UPS Store.
"This is D/FW's coming-out party," Ken Buchanan, the airport's executive vice president of revenue management, said shortly after arriving May 21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. "This thing is huge."
And the sheer number of potential tenants isn't necessarily the airport's biggest challenge.
"A lot of these guys don't view the airport as a viable place to do business," Buchanan said.
D/FW has been pressing to add more retail -- it gets about half of its annual $500 million budget from airlines. In Las Vegas, it was touting the impending openings of several new stores and restaurants, ranging from Dunkin' Donuts to Mont Blanc, and the availability of credit-card processing at 97 Pepsi machines.
At the same time, D/FW was recently called out by respondents in a J.D. Power survey on the depth -- or lack thereof -- of its food, beverage and retail offerings, even though it placed first among North American airports in overall satisfaction. Other airports also rated low in the retail categories.
So, for four days in Sin City, D/FW executives slipped into their most comfortable shoes and roamed three giant convention halls, covering more than 2 million square feet.
"It's so overwhelming," Zenola Campbell, the airport's vice president of concessions, said on her third day walking among the exhibitors. "Last night I slept like a baby."
Kinko's skeptical
As he approached the FedEx Kinko's booth, Baldwin noted the importance of this meeting.
"We've been nurturing this one for a while," he said. "We think we're close."
Accompanying Baldwin were Campbell and Ken Mosig, an assistant vice president of revenue management.
They gathered around a small table in the back of the FedEx Kinko's booth with Jayson Haynes, the company's manager of nontraditional development and a former American Airlines executive.
Haynes said he hadn't done a market analysis to find out whether a store would work in the airport.
Besides shopping centers, FedEx Kinko's has stores in hotels and convention centers.
"I'm hopeful there's a way to figure it out," he said.
FedEx Kinko's is a tough sell. More than a year ago, the company turned down D/FW's original idea to put a copy-and-print store on the north mezzanine level in Terminal D next to Reata restaurant, Buchanan said after the Las Vegas meeting in an interview with the Star-Telegram.
At this new meeting, Baldwin floated the idea of a FedEx Kinko's "hub-and-satellite" system of stores at the airport.
Kinko's could have one main storefront, he said, and a couple of other smaller outlets.
Haynes was skeptical. Travelers might not want to print documents and lug them onto a plane, he said. But he could see customers stopping into a FedEx Kinko's store at the airport and arranging to have documents printed at or delivered to a destination.
That's when Haynes passed out glossy fliers to the airport executives promoting the company's new online printing service. The new service did all that he described, just not in an airport.
Baldwin liked the idea.
"This is a natural for an airport," he said.
But Haynes said part of the challenge is that FedEx Kinko's is a service business. It can't exist by just making copies for customers.
"We've got to think about it," he said. "I just don't know."
Baldwin said the company could start with a small footprint in the middle of Terminal D on the secured side, across from the Popeye's chicken restaurant.
Again, Haynes didn't commit to anything.
"We've got to do some studying internally," he said. "I really do appreciate your continued interest."
And with that, the executives said their goodbyes and were on their way.
Sandwiched meetings
Earlier in the day, the same airport officials briefly met with Quiznos and two kiosk manufacturers.
Their pitch to Quiznos didn't last long. They learned they needed to speak with the sandwich maker's head of airport sales, who wasn't there.
But D/FW officials spent considerable time talking to a couple of kiosk manufacturers based in North Texas.
The airport has 25 kiosks. Campbell and her colleagues want to add kiosks and give them all a uniform appearance.
"Ultimately, we know we have to change what we currently have," Campbell told Ben Goldfarb, president of Creations at Dallas.
The 45-year-old Dallas company claims to be the first to build kiosks out of metal. It has them scattered around D/FW Airport and Phoenix's airport.
After a few minutes, the airport executives shuffled over to a booth for EG Retail of Grapevine, where Terri Boettigheimer showed them design options.
"That one looks like a 747," Mosig said with a smile as he looked at a particular kiosk with large doors extending like wings.
High-tech advertising
In addition to hunting for new retail shops and service providers, Baldwin was on the lookout for new advertising concepts.
With the giddiness of a schoolboy, Baldwin hurried his colleagues over to look at a large LED screen in the shape of a column.
It had moving images that wrapped 360 degrees around the tall cylinder.
Irvine, Calif.-based DynaScan Technology was showing it off.
"So are you still open to doing a pilot?" Baldwin asked the two DynaScan executives.
"For you guys? Absolutely," David Huang, the director of business development, shot back.
The video displays, which range in size from an extra-large trash can to a small car, can be placed anywhere because they can receive signals through Wi-Fi networks.
Baldwin's idea: use the circular screens above baggage carousels for advertising or information.
"We're looking at the future of dynamic advertisements," he said.
Mosig was equally excited.
"That's the way to go, man. ... I love this."
The airport executives agreed to talk further with DynaScan.
Baldwin whipped out his camera phone and took a picture of the futuristic screens.
But as his colleagues started walking away, Baldwin snapped one more picture.
"Did we lose Michael?" Campbell asked, mixing impatience with good-natured ribbing. "Is he still snapping shots?"
D/FW Airport retail numbers
216,000
Square feet of total concession space in the five terminals.
35,000
Square feet of concession space that's empty and available for lease.
$40 million
Concessions revenue brought in last year. It's the airport's fifth-largest revenue category.
8%
Share of the total pie that restaurants and retail shops brought in for 2006.
Source: D/FW Airport
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David Wethe, 817-685-3803