Airport retailers on Monday welcomed the easing of airport security rules and say they'll begin restocking some of the items removed after the August crackdown.
In August, Hudson Group, which has about 500 airport stores in North America, stopped selling most liquid or gel items that generally aren't consumed at the airport, such as toiletries.
"But if TSA says we can take them on board, then we'll restock them," spokeswoman Laura Samuels says.
On Aug. 10, the Transportation Security Administration tightened screening rules in response to an alleged terrorist plot uncovered in London.
The TSA eased the rules Monday, allowing liquid or gel items as carry-ons if they are in a container that is 3 ounces or smaller and sealed in a one-quart, zip-lock plastic bag.
In another change, any liquid or gel items purchased in stores that are located beyond security checkpoints can also be carried on board, regardless of size.
The TSA's latest revision recognizes retailers' growing emphasis on stores in post-security areas, says Hudson Group's Samuels.
Since 9/11, passengers have increasingly preferred to clear security as soon as they arrive at the airport and get to their gates as quickly as possible. In response, retailers and airports are building more stores beyond checkpoints. The change in rules benefits those stores the most because their goods aren't subject to the size requirements of TSA screeners.
Samuels and other retailers say that the latest TSA rule change will have no effect on pricing. Retailers are bound by contracts with airports in their pricing. Airports are increasingly insisting that retailers' prices match those at nearby off-airport stores.
HDS Retail North America, which operates 20 U.S. airport gift stores, anticipates the revision will help boost its sales, particularly in stores located beyond checkpoints, says CEO Jean-Baptiste Morin.
For stores located before the checkpoints, he says, the effect will be minimal. Stores located before checkpoints lost sales of banned items with the August rule changes, and the most recent revisions won't change that.
After the initial ban in August, passengers waited until they cleared security to buy water and other beverages, he says. Its precheckpoint stores derive as much as 25% of sales from beverages.
HDS will restock stores beyond the checkpoints with the toiletries and health and beauty items it stopped selling in August, he says.
The Body Shop, which has 16 airport stores in the USA, will no longer require its clerks at shops inside security checkpoints to ask customers if they're arriving or departing passengers, says marketing executive Kim Burrs.
Since August, the retailer has sold liquid or gel products only to those confirming that they just landed to prevent them from running into trouble with TSA.
The company closed nearly half of its airport stores immediately after the TSA's decision in August but reopened them within a week.
The Body Shop also may stock stores with more items in small containers but says many of its products are already small enough to fit the TSA's new requirement.
"We're encouraged by these revisions," says Burrs.
Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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