price gauging at airports

i'm bias to airports to begin with. i can't stand them! i rarely find anything worth eating, if i'm not running for a plane i'm sitting for hours waiting for one, the never ending security lines, & to top it all off the price gauging that takes place inside of airports makes me sick.

while i can fill my bag with cliff bars & trail mix you aren't allowed to bring your own water. if you buy a water outside of security you are then forced to throw it away or drink it before you can enter an actual terminal. granted, i understand the need for security... security is actually at the bottom of my list of things i can stand about airports :) everyone knows or should know that while in the air your body gets seriously dehydrated. airlines all recommend you drink plenty of water while flying, yet the airport stores price gauge you on water - $2+ bucks for a small (20oz) bottle of water. the airports should enforce a price cap on water in my opinion so that anyone with a dollar can get a big bottle of water because we all know if you order water on a plane you get a small cup of water & nothing else. isn't it odd that if you order a coke you get a full 12oz can, but if you order a water all you get is a cup filled with about 4oz of water?

as for the food marts, coffee shops, etc. they price gauge on everything. the same coffee that you'd get at starbucks (which is already over priced) costs you double in an airport. i ordered a smoothie from smoothing king while at the airport earlier this week & the same smoothie was three dollars more than what a smoothie king in town would charge (note: don't get a smoothie from smoothie king, especially while in the airport - this deserves it's own blog post). i'm suspect that the overhead costs for the smoothie king in the airport are way less than a smoothie shop that has to maintain their own brick & mortar store, AC, heating, security, etc. so the margin these chains are making on the items they are selling must be astronomical.

checkout the attached pic. that south beach bar is being sold for $3.49. you can find that same bar in a grocery store for less than a buck. probably not the best example, but you get the point about the type of price gauging taking place at airports.