Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2026

ADVERTORIAL

ALWAYS READY TO ORDER What Travelers Want From An Airport Hasn’t Changed. How Retailors Deliver It Has, And That’s Opening New Ground For Everyone

It’s 4:40 a.m., and down the concourse a traveler grabs a cold brew and a breakfast sandwich from a micro market stocked with that same terminal restaurant’s private-label snacks, open and fully stocked since midnight. The restaurant itself doesn’t open for two more hours. Passengers don’t stop moving when the restaurants close, and increasingly, neither does the food and beverage program built to serve them. Travelers want a handful of consistent things wherever they are: options they trust, available the moment they need them, and the freedom to choose without waiting on someone else’s hours. That consumer expectation is a real opening for transit hubs and retailers alike. Staffed restaurants will always anchor an airport’s dining identity, but convenience services can fill the gaps around traditional staffing constraints. The convenience services industry – self-service retail such as a micro market, smart cooler or vending machines that make up NAMA’s membership – are built around meeting exactly that kind of demand. That’s a viable way to put brands or products in front of a traveler who’s ready to buy right now , in a location, hour or footprint brick and mortar was never built to reach.

NAMA represents the U.S. Convenience Services Industry, which contributes $41+ billion to the U.S. economy. Through self-service retail solutions like micro markets and vending machines, and workplace amenities like coffee and pantry service, the industry provides a wide range of food, beverage, and in-demand products where people work, live and play. NAMA offers a place to start, with education and standards built for this exact work, along with access to a network of nearly 1,000 member companies advancing what modern convenience services can do. Airport and retailors can also see the industry in action at Imagination Way, the exhibition inside The NAMA Show that has previously featured tech-enabled retail zones built specifically for airports, hotels and transit hubs. It’s a chance to walk through what an unattended retail environment actually looks like. The NAMA Show returns May 5-7, 2027, in New Orleans. “Our members are constantly building relationships across the industry to figure out how a convenience services program can extend what a location or a brand already does well,” says Kristen Griffith, senior vice president of member experience at NAMA. “The goal is always the same: make sure the traveler feels taken care of, no matter what hour they’re moving through the terminal.” Tapping into Opportunity For airport concessions teams and restaurant operators, the harder part usually isn’t deciding that self-service belongs in the mix, it’s knowing which operator can actually deliver it well in an airport environment, with the security, monitoring and food safety standards the setting demands.

29

AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2026