New York Airports Crack Down on Overpriced Food and Drinks Including $28 Beers
The $28 beer at LaGuardia Airport is about to become a thing of the past: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the airports, announced that it was tightening enforcement of its “street pricing” policy that keeps the prices travelers pay at restaurants and other concessions at its airports comparable to prices elsewhere in the city.
The revised policy caps any surcharges at 10% of the comparable price outside the airport.
Last summer a Sam Adams beer costing $27.85 (not including a 10% “Covid recovery fee listed on the menu” was the root cause of an audit initiated by the Port Authority requiring the company that operates food and beverage concessions at the region’s three major airports to ensure compliance with the agency’s 10% rule.
The flyer who posted the price of the beer on social media – Cooper Lund, of Brooklyn – also flagged an order of French fries costing $10.90.
“It’s just Sam Adams Summer Ale – that’s insane,” Lund said in a tweet.
In the summer of 2020, the Port Authority’s board approved a motion to set prices at up to 10% higher than the current “street pricing” threshold but subsequent social media posts over the course of the following two years show that there has been lax enforcement of the rule.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)