Airports in America are veritable food courts. Here is a partial list of food outlets at just one set of departure gates in one terminal of one Airport. We had Nature's Kitchen, Chipotle, Popeye's, Einstein Bros Bagel Company, Diner Niner, Subway and of course the ubiquitous Starbucks and McDonald's. Add to that list the newsstand Hudson News which also has racks for Hostess Cupcakes and Hostess Twinkies. All of these were open and operational at 5 am and there were long queues at most of them, especially long ones at the Starbucks and at the McDonald's.
What amazed me were not the people waiting patiently in queue to fork over $8.95 for their Java - but people who were ordering 600 calorie breakfasts - like McDonald's Pancakes with sausage or a pair of bagels with cream cheese. And they looked it too.
Clearly, supply side economics is working. A number of these people would have had a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast at home if these outlets had not existed at the airport.
This is clearly a case of availability breeding consumption. We should thank our stars, and the bureaucracy, that airports in India, except perhaps Delhi and Bangalore, do not have such a large array of food joints. Every time I stare at the wares on offer at one of the two food stalls at Pune airport, the view pretty much kills my appetite. Had there been a McDonald's there, serving their Pancakes with Syrup or a Starbucks selling bagels with cream cheese, I would have been 2 sizes larger.
In the interest of national health, perhaps we should all sign a petition to ban food outlets at Indian airports.
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