Julia Altshuler > writes:
> I've wondered about this. A few years ago I was on the airport
> shuttle bus to Logan Airport in Boston. A sign in the bus said
> something about how the prices in the airport were supposed to be the
> same as other area prices and gave a phone number on where to report
> violations.

Boston Logan has a "Street Pricing" policy which states that "Street
Pricing Policy requires all airport food and retail merchants offer
goods and service at prices similar to prices found at comparable
locations in the Boston and Cambridge area". Further reading
indicates that "comparable locations" include mall food courts.

So they can gouge, as long as the local malls are gouging, too.

A lot of airports have these policies, but they are mostly lip
service. I know Detroit and Vancouver gave up on theirs since it
wasn't working.

Although I've seen it work in Phoenix, where in the late '90s Terminals
2 and 3 had such a policy, whiile the larger Terminal 4 didn't, and
there was a ~15% difference in prices at the Burger Kings.

--
Richard W Kaszeta

http://www.kaszeta.org/rich