Interesting Concept....

Recent development at the airport. The cafe inside the terminal has decided to remove its old ordinary entrance and set up a new entrance from the secure side, apparently in response to complaints from airline passengers that they cannot frequent the cafe from the secure side.

The problem with this is that those who are employees or vendors of the airport (cab drivers, ticket agents, rental car employees) can no longer get into the cafe because TSA apparently will not allow us through the security area. Apparently they feel that cab drivers and rental car agents pose a security risk, even though I've had to get a security badge to identify myself to all airport personnel. I guess the cafe feels that the airline passengers spend more money. Time will tell on that one. The only other way to get food or drinks is the snack machines or ordering delivery. A cooler takes up luggage space in the trunk, and likely any perishables will go bad on a typical 15 hour day, anyway. One of the cashiers told me recently to knock on the window and they will be glad to help me, but from what I see, they are only here for two of my shifts a week.

I can understand the business standpoint, but I would think that 35 permitted taxi vendors, 20-25 rental car employees, and 50 airline employees should be spending enough for this cafe to make money.

I can also understand that no one likes being in limbo for 45 minutes before their flight, but it might have been easier to build a wall to create a secure side of the cafe. Although, I digress.

But, seeing as my money (and other airport taxi drivers' money) is not good enough for the cafe at this terminal, I guess it's not good enough to buy fuel at any of their other locations. I don't know if any of the other drivers will join me on this, seeing as they can't agree on anything long enough to get an ice cream cone, but I myself buy at least 50 gallons of fuel a week between my taxi and my personal vehicle.

If the other 35 drivers here do join my boycott, and have the same fuel purchases, that is 1750 gallons of fuel we might have otherwise purchased from them. At an average profit of 5 to 10 cents per gallon (I've researched this), that's anywhere from $90 - $175 profit they would lose each week. Doesn't sound like much, but that, combined with the loss of what we have been spending in the cafe itself, aside from other purchases when off-duty...... hmmm.... could be as much as $300 a week or more they're losing.

Oh, well. If my money's not good enough for them, I guess I'll just spend it elsewhere.