Page 18 - Travel Markets Insider October 2021 Final

INSIDER

cigarettes and liquor – a big breakthrough.”
“But the thing we learned from
Herman and Fred was that when the
landlord comes with an opportunity, just
say yes,” added Stephen.
International Shoppes next added
Tower Airlines – a regularly scheduled
airline offering charter fares to Amsterdam
and Tel Aviv.
“At one time we had stores at TWA
and Pan Am, and Eastern Airlines! All the
airlines that have gone out of business,”
Michael quipped. “The basic thing with our
company, with all these experiences that
we have had with duty free, is that we met
a lot of great people and we parleyed that
into other businesses—but our roots are
really firmly established in duty free. That
is our future and that is where our bread
and butter has been, always.”
One of IS’s related businesses was International Shoppes opened luxury boutiques at BOS Terminal E in 2017 for Dior, Lancôme,
newsstands. “We had the newsstands Chanel, and a joint Estée Lauder/La Mer space.
throughout the various airports and also
off-premise in the airport hotels, and in the
casinos in Atlantic City. We were in Bally
and Caesar’s. We tried a lot of different
things as an organization,” said Scott working with Customs and getting approval room the first few months to make sure that
Halpern. to open up operations in Philadelphia.” our DNA was really embedded in the ways
“Philadelphia was our first big play the store was run. We brought up team
Philadelphia calls out of the area. It was close enough, and yet members from New York and Philadelphia
Airport-wise, IS’s first step outside far enough that we could build up a model to help with the transition and create a new
of JFK was Newark, where they had a to do remote business,” added Michael. culture, which was International Shoppes
partnership with EJE. “We did a great job enhancing the Culture,” explained Scott.
“And from there we went to duty free experience, by taking a generic “We turned over management quite
Philadelphia,” said Scott. “Nuance store and putting in personalized vendor a bit there until we got a solution that we
had won the Philadelphia duty free fixtures in PHL to showcase a first class were really happy with. We thought it was
contract but decided not to proceed after store,” noted Scott. important to bring in the right people,”
9/11. Philadelphia made a call up to added Matt.
Kennedy airport and asked if they had Boston and more In 2014, IS opened its first shop in
a recommendation for someone to run IS won the Boston duty free Dulles International Airport, partnering
the stores. We were the main player at concession contract in 2011 and in the first with Estée Lauder in an 1,800 sq. ft.
Kennedy airport and they recommended year personalized the store and doubled the multi-branded boutique featuring the
that they speak to us. We drove down the sales, recalled Matt Greenbaum. Estée Lauder, Clinique, Jo Malone,
next day and before we knew it we were “We were up there living out of a hotel MAC, and La Mer brands as well as a

L’Oréal Travel Retail Americas unveiled a Valentino Beauty
flagship in JFK International Airport Terminal 1, developed in partnership
with International Shoppes, this summer.

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