Separation Anxiety - How Pandemic-Distanced, Disconnected Consumers Can Influence Airport Food And Retail Post-Pandemic

In his book Post Corona, Professor Scott Galloway noted that, “by the time the virus is contained, we may have raised a micro-generation of innate distancers.” 

Galloway wrote this in reference to higher education being an industry long primed for disruption. He explained how a generation of students would grow to become conditioned to learning at a distance and, potentially, become acclimated to interactions with others at a distance.

After finishing his book, the line left such an impression that it conjured up two memories.

Sandra Bullock’s movie The Net was about a gifted computer programmer embroiled in a conspiracy. Bullock’s character was a recluse whose primary interactions with another human being came with the delivery person dropping off packages. I thought this to be odd...when I saw the movie in the theater back in 1995. As an aside, she was a tech person who ran around with cables and a dial-up modem pouring from her arms like an exhausted mom up way too early or awake way too long on a Black Friday morning hoarding toys around a Target. But I digress. 

Amazon was only about a year old.

It took the Apple iPod only a few years after its launch to become ubiquitous. Though you would have a 1000 songs in your pocket it was easy to tell who was fortunate to rock one, thanks to the distinct white Apple earbuds as opposed to the standard issue black that many headset makers, at the time, provided. In 2011, Tom De Castella wrote a piece for the BBC that, among other things, linked the iPod to causing antisocial behavior. People were obsessed and unable to extricate themselves from the device. The MP3 player was used as a way to alert others that they would like to be left alone. They were lost in a world that moved to a soundtrack comprised of Eminem, U2, or, God forbid, Nickelback.

A mobile phone is not exactly an MP3 player but both are portable devices we are engrossed with. They’ve also been a cause of antisocial behavior, as evidenced by my fourteen year old who texts me from the other room asking about what I am making for dinner. Yes, chicken again. 

According to a Bluedot study, 64% of survey respondents downloaded at least one or more new apps to purchase food from a restaurant, grocery store, or some other essential store. The same study notes that 88% are using apps to order as much if not more than before the pandemic. Our lives center around our mobile device. Period.

The above situations are notable not for the technology that is deployed and has been a part of our lives before, during, and, likely, after the pandemic. What is increasingly noted is the lack of human interaction. Better put, it’s the minimization of human interaction. More succinctly, it’s the widening gulf between ourselves and others. And this behavior is likely to stick or at least continue until the next global shift.

A McKinsey & Company article on consumer behavior noted, “Beliefs are psychological—so deeply rooted that they prevent consumers from logically evaluating alternatives and thus perpetuate existing habits and routines.” As a result, newly established behaviors--such as purchasing online, through an app, via a kiosk--will continue onward.

I’ll use my own recent experience.

We (meaning my wife) have been regular users of Amazon Prime long before the pandemic. Though we (meaning my wife) are not at the end of the spectrum of Prime devotees whose usage has skyrocketed and thus propelled Amazon's stock to an 87% increase, I would describe our (meaning my wife) usage as being “more than normal”. We (meaning my wife) did our Christmas shopping exclusively through Amazon. The driver, who I only see via my Ring (an Amazon product) doorbell, drops off packages and goes off on his merry way. I have taken to naming him Steve. Sometimes it's Stacy.

For some time now we have been conditioned to go through this process because of convenience. I can see making half of my non-perishable food purchases online. It’s convenient but the result is, well, I will rarely leave my home. I’ll just have Steve or Stacy to thank.

The McKinsey & Company piece adds data that reinforces this by stating “15 percent of US consumers tried grocery delivery for the first time during COVID.” More than 80 percent were satisfied with the experience and 40 percent intend to continue with this mode of shopping.

“When consumers are surprised and delighted by new experiences, even long-held beliefs can change, making consumers more willing to repeat the behavior,” adds the study.

So is this foreshadowing of the customer service world that we should expect in the post-pandemic world?

Yes. In the constrained, often frenetic, and walled universe of an airport, customer service and engagement will vary. Price point and personal will be determinants of what customer service will look like and what exactly the story will be.

Touchless. Unmanned. Automated. Self-Service. App-Driven. Robotic.

COVID has been an accelerant, just as Galloway has reiterated in many articles, podcasts, and interviews. That said, if companies had not ventured into any of the aforementioned, then they were certainly in the planning stages. If companies were not in the planning stages, then they were certainly in discussion. And if companies weren’t in discussion, well, at worst they might not be around or at best are desperately playing catch up.

What had initially propelled such a movement?

Blame millennials? It certainly had been a reason du jour. The labor cost debate that centered around a higher minimum wage? Touchy, sensitive, and greatly polarizing. Automation and robotics? They are the most recent, a cause spotlighted by Andrew Yang during his presidential run.

Consider the following scenario:

We order through an app or on some monolith looking tablet with a touch screen. We pick up our food in a designated location or a person simply hands it to us yelling, “Order number 66!”  over the din in the concourse. We don’t smile nor do a happy dance. We take our order because we are, indeed, order number 66.

This will become the new norm, or at least an accompaniment to a new norm.

So how does this affect food and retail in airports?

FOOD

Perhaps the simplest to anticipate. 

QSRs like McDonald’s and Wendy’s have featured self-ordering kiosks for quite some time. McDonald’s began in 2015 and has since continued implementing them in their restaurants. Dunkin’ and Chick-fil-A have robust apps that allow you to order ahead and pick up your food. In sum, the aforementioned are just a growing cadre of prominent brands who are not just innovating but developing new behaviors that just so happened to coincide with the pandemic. Reducing friction while catering to an increasingly growing and influential millennial troupe of purchasers was the driver. COVID became the accelerant.

“Creating fast, efficient, and accurate processes not only keep businesses operational, but done right, they make customers happier. It’s an opportunity the ACSI has found can be majorly improved upon,” said David VanAmburg, managing director for the American Customer Satisfaction Index in a July 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

Social distancing has stifled dine-in. Quick serve chains continue to do well because of their tech platforms and brand equity (meaning trust, familiarity). The biggest impact is that this kind of behavior has already been ingrained into people’s everyday lives and the social conditioning began long before the pandemic. In essence, QSRs have become fulfillment centers. Starbucks created a pick-up only concept that some in my circle snickered at. I might have snickered at it too. Well, who’s snickering now?

Currently, Costa Coffee (formerly Briggo) is an unmanned coffee experience that allows you to either order through its app or from a touchscreen on the unit. You never need to interact with a human barista and the coffee, so I am told, comes out perfect each time. Units can be found in San Francisco International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Grab Mobile has installed QR codes in a number of airports. Scan with your phone, place your order, and pick it up. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

Is this the death of the dine-in? Not necessarily.

If I am fortunate to go to a restaurant, which need not be something high-end but certainly a local with personality, I would still want to go, take in the atmosphere, and be regaled with a long story about how the source of my filet mignon was cared for, how the brussel sprouts were roasted on in a cast iron skillet composed of materials mined from a socially responsible family, and how the ingredients in my salad were washed in rain water collected in a remote pristine part of Costa Rica. I can’t get that in an app nor would I have the patience to read about it on Yelp. I'm certain that I would not be the only one.

But for a QSR, my interaction is minimal, more transactional. Customers just want their order processed and for someone to hand it to them. The world is replaced by speed, efficiency, and accuracy. If you’ve ever sat through a winding line at a Chick-fil-A drive through, it’s a marvel at how quickly and efficiently they move you through. I can bring my Chick-fil-A home to my family and I can fire up my Netflix, which in its own way has also hastened the death of movie theaters, and enjoy season four of The Crown.

As a result, it’s likely that the food landscape in airports will look very familiar with tried and trusted brands like a McDonald’s, a Chick-fil-A, and a Starbucks. We have placed speed, convenience, and accuracy at the top of our list and these behaviors are likely to continue. 

RETAIL

The retail animal follows the same trail as food, but is much trickier.

For the basic meet and greet forms of engagement, you’ll get the baseline, bare minimum requirement that is asked of any associate. This applies mainly to travel essential stores whose product mix will continue to be--as their name suggests--the essentials.

But the true determinant of this will be, again, price point and personal. After all, if you know you want a bottle of Dasani water, a bag of Doritos, and a pouch of peanut M&Ms your trainer feels you really don’t need, there isn’t much to it. But the greater the price or even the more personal the purchase, you’re going to want an education. Maybe at least be treated to a humorous anecdote. Otherwise, it’s simply getting the item to you quickly and efficiently.

Just like Starbucks and its pick-up only concept were to be food fulfillment centers, so too will you find this in retail. The launch of Walmart+, the Arkansas retailer’s response to Amazon Prime, fits in this mold. Amazon Prime’s differentiator was to have an item to you by the next day or in two days thanks to their logistical genius. As of January 2020, Amazon only had over 100 active warehouses. Walmart has over 4,000 stores, which will act as fulfillment centers. Advantage, for now, Walmart.

The example is meant to illustrate that efforts at convenience and speed and how they are of the utmost importance when dealing with basic essentials.

Does knowing how your Dasani was filtered and bottled or how the Doritos were efficiently bagged and shipped really what gets you to make the purchase and break your diet, again? Conversely, you will want to know who made some piece of artwork, the story it is trying to tell, and the story behind the artisan who created it.

Speaking of Amazon, OTG opened the first cashier-less store this past December. Utilizing Amazon's Just Walk Out Technology, customers can enter, scan their credit card, and take what they want much like in Amazon Go store. OTG is the first but I predict will not be the last to either use this tech or implement this approach.

So what does this all point to regarding retail? Well, in a couple LinkedIn posts that I wrote months ago, I made a few predictions on categories of retail that would emerge as a result of the pandemic. Health and wellness is one. Additionally, I wrote and expanded upon a presentation that I gave at a conference that delved into explaining retail in airports. I predicted that scarcity will be the driver of any retail purchases in an airport and that locally crafted, locally designed, and locally sourced type of retail will be the predominant specialty, non-travel essential type of retail in concourses. In summation, all of the aforementioned will require an elevated form of engagement through storytelling and education.

And if it just so happens that you find yourself in a situation where want and need are at the intersection of such a Venn diagram, price point will still play a part and, thus, expert storytelling and selling.

Are we still ripe for the upsell? Are we to become a society of disconnected people? Has our access to a vast network of information on our phone screens supplanted salesperson Andy, the all-knowing, all-encompassing human Encyclopedia Brittanica? 

The last example is obviously an extreme. For a long time we’ve had access to tech to search for prices, reviews, and details on what we want to potentially purchase. This led to the practice of showrooming. But retailers have since turned showrooming to their advantage. How do airport food and retail turn the latest into their advantage?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Price point and personal are two determinants of where and how customer service and engagement are implemented, if at all.

Food can and will exist via the national brands that have the tech infrastructure and brand equity to engage consumers. If airports were to add more high end (price point) and local (personal) concepts, which I think any solid program should be sprinkled with, then conveying the story will be the key to relevance.

Specialty retail in airports will need to shift towards truly unique experiences (as I mentioned in one of my pieces which pointed to scarcity). There will also need to be a crafting of a compelling narrative or story to go alongside such a concept. Truly local and unique (price point and personal) stores along with your souvenir (personal) shops will dot the landscape of airport retail. Anything in between will be a shot in the dark.

As of this writing, it has been almost a year since the entire world virtually shut down. The country has been in various degrees and stages of lockdown, social distancing, and, in extreme cases, isolation. And yet, the entire world moves on because we, as a people, have to continue forward.  

The airport industry has had to pivot towards adopting trends that have become normalized behavior over the last few years, nevermind the last number of months. Most importantly, the escalation in innovation and the creativity in engaging and converting customers will not slow.

In the days leading up to Christmas, Tik Tok and Walmart collaborated in a livestream event where users could view fashion choices by certain creators. Purchases could be done within the app and with a single tap. This could be the start of something greater. 

Social apps such as Instagram are allowing established and emerging influencers, such as my friend Shop Life With Style, an alternative way to engage prospective buyers and showcase clothing and accessories for purchase.

California-based convenience market Pink Dot is rolling out delivery robots. Currently in a testing phase, it will be launched in partnership with Postmates. Amazon and FedEx have been testing robotic delivery as well.

Augmented reality and artificial intelligence are combining to assist customers shopping for clothes by viewing prospective purchases on avatars of themselves. Online retailer Yoox wants to help customers judge on look and fit. The goal isn’t just to increase the likelihood of the sale, but to make “the online experience less certain, which means less returns, and less waste.”

There is no circumventing that change is inevitable.

Whenever I was approached by brands (mainly food) interested in entering airports, I would first tell them about my Seven Second Window test. Essentially, can you get my attention, get me to understand, and get me to decide all within seven seconds? National brands hit on all three. National brands happen to also have the structure to engage. Their story is already there and the means to access them is simple. Brands who are not fortunate to have such recognition do not have the same luxury.

Retail and food service will either transform or lean further into being knowledge experts and storytellers, especially when trying to capture the narrow attention span of a traveler. And in a hectic environment like an airport, where many are at about 60% of the traffic pre-pandemic and retailers do not have the benefit of throngs of people coming their way, it makes these skills much more important and necessary. 

When the river is teeming with trout, it’s called catching not fishing. When the fish aren’t biting or are few and far between, you need to find that proper lure to hook one.

Price point and personal should be in the airport tacklebox.

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This is meant to be a thought provoker and a conversation starter.