Airport Experience® News - Retail & Amenities Issue 2023

Left: Debbie Strisko launched Naturally Inspired under Orlando International Airport’s kiosk program years ago and eventually graduated to an in-line store. She recently sold the business to a new entrepreneur. Below: Orlando International Airport’s Retail Merchandising Unit kiosk program employs a one-year lease agreement and dedicated one-to-one mentoring to guide new operators, offering both the airport and operator the opportunity to see if a brand is a good airport fit.

have a great concept, but it’s not the right concept for an airport,” she says. To ensure a greater chance of success, a dedicated team at SEA works with kiosks to walk them through every step of the badging, marketing, and sales process. In order to find compelling concepts, Moore and her team conduct a “Shark Tank”-style panel to select interested local brands. “The pitch panel is great, especially for small and micro- businesses,” says Moore, “because it’s hard to put your concept and passion into words.” Installing local brands “has been really financially successful,” adds Chris Guizlo, aviation communications and marketing manager for SEA, noting that several kiosks have expressed interest in expanding to a full, in-line store based on their introductory experience. The process has also yielded a diverse portfolio of woman- and minority-operated businesses like Africa’s Best and Glass Eye Studio, which Moore views as invaluable to the retail landscape at SEA. “It’s wonderful to celebrate the culture represented in our passengers,” she says, “as well as our employees and the entire city of Seattle.” At Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Retail Merchandising Unit kiosk program employs a one-year lease agreement and dedicated one-to-one mentoring to guide new operators through the large-scale process of airport selling. “A lot of businesses are brand new to the airport and many of them don’t yet understand all the nuances,” says Tina Jackson, senior concessions contract retail

administrator at MCO. “We work with them to find out who their demographic is, who their customer is, what their concept is, and do the best we can to match them up to a particular airside [location] that might help make them successful.” The RMU program, which began in the mid-2000s, has built a loyal following of customers, Jackson says, who actively look for their favorite brands year after year. “It blows us away when operators tell me that they have repeat customers,” she adds. MCO’s kiosk programhas also yielded long term growth from tenants like accessories boutique Naturally Inspired, which worked

its way from kiosk to in-line store. “The RMU program did exactly what it planned to,” says Naturally Inspired owner Debbie Strisko, who recently sold her business to a new entrepreneur. “It’s an easy way to open retail in the Orlando airport and not have ‘big money’ startup costs, and it was a great way to test out my concept,” says Strisko. “It’s a much lower risk to launch a kiosk than to go through a whole build out. It allowed me to understand how best to work up to an in-line store — now I get to pass it forward and give that opportunity to another entrepreneur.”

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