It started Monday, when Kylie Brakeman shared a listing on X of how a lot the savory cereal snack prices at three totally different airports.

“Began doing science,” she wrote. “Be happy to report any information you may have.”

She included a screenshot of costs she’d documented in her iPhone Notes app: $9.99 at LaGuardia, $5.99 at Indianapolis Worldwide, and $4.76 at Dallas Fort Value Worldwide.

Brakeman travels rather a lot for work — not as a statistician or airport retail advisor, however an actor, TV author and comic. She says she was anticipating some laughs and a “small however enthusiastic response” from the publish, and as a substitute obtained a deluge of responses. Her findings had struck a nerve.

“Now we have failed as a society,” one individual wrote in response to the $10 Chex Combine.

Strangers throughout the nation replied with examples they’d seen in latest travels. Others added examples to a shared Google spreadsheet that Brakeman created after her Notes app was getting too cluttered. At Boston Logan Worldwide Airport, some reported the identical 8.75-ounce Chex Combine bag prices $5.69. At both of Chicago’s airports, it’ll run you greater than $12.

By comparability, the identical baggage of Chex Combine have been priced at $4.19 at a CVS in downtown D.C. on Wednesday.

“It’s loopy to me,” Brakeman says. “It’s the identical bag. It’s the identical chips.”

It’s not the primary time airports have come beneath fireplace for charging mind-boggling costs for on a regular basis objects. In 2022, LaGuardia Airport (house of the $9.99 Chex Combine) went viral for charging as a lot as $27 for a single beer. The general public outrage impressed the port authority overseeing New York Metropolis airports to tighten its shopper protections for meals and drinks. (Final 12 months, New York Instances columnist David Brooks complained to social media a couple of $78 meal at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport; most of that was his bar tab.)

Airport upcharges don’t come as a shock to Lawrence J. White, professor of economics at New York College’s Stern College of Enterprise.

“It’s simply effectively understood there’s a captive viewers and that’s what retailers are going to do,” he stated.

Concessionaires can set their very own costs however could also be restricted by governing forces, together with native legislation.

Based on Airports Council Worldwide – North America (ACI-NA) analysis, greater than 80 p.c of airports use a retail and concessions pricing methodology known as “road pricing plus.” This enables distributors to regulate pricing to mirror the extra prices of working inside an airport atmosphere, a spokesperson for the council stated in an e-mail. Based on ACI-NA’s findings, about two-thirds of airports cap pricing at 10 p.c greater than road pricing.

Underneath Los Angeles World Airports coverage, distributors have been allowed to cost road pricing plus 18 p.c since 2010. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport, it’s road pricing plus 15, approved by laws in December 2021. In the meantime, at Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide companies are obligated to keep on with road pricing, a transfer impressed by Portland Worldwide Airport. At Baltimore-Washington Worldwide Marshall Airport, it’s road pricing until distributors need to match one other native airport’s worth for an merchandise (as much as road plus 10 p.c).

Even inside airports, costs could fluctuate from retailer to retailer, as shops beneath the identical chain (corresponding to Hudson Information) could have totally different house owners. That’s why you’ll see a number of Chex Combine entries for a similar airport with totally different costs in Brakeman’s spreadsheet.

White stated that’s about the identical as you’d see in your neighborhood; the value of a bag of Chex Combine could fluctuate from the comfort retailer by your workplace to the grocery retailer close to your own home. “It’s principally the retailers’ perspective on, ‘Oh, the purchasers are prepared to pay,’” he stated.

However not like your neighborhood grocery, which has to consider repeat clients and its native fame, airports have much less to lose from charging exorbitant costs.

“The folks passing by means of the airport usually are not going to be there tomorrow or the day after,” White stated. “And in the event that they do come again a month later, they could have forgotten their vow by no means to purchase the Chex Combine ever once more.”

The ACI-NA spokesperson stated it’s “essential to know that pricing methods are extremely localized” and that, “[s]suggest put, the price of doing enterprise in an airport atmosphere is significantly greater than outdoors an airport, and consequently, costs for services and products at airports are greater than at outlets outdoors the terminal,” the spokesperson stated.

Restaurateur Rick Bayless, of Tortas Frontera by Rick Bayless — one of the fashionable airport restaurant companies within the nation — says there are a lot of components that require distributors to cost extra for a similar product than they could on the town. The principle one is hire.

“You suppose, ‘Downtown eating places, the occupancy prices are excessive.’ They’re, however nothing like what it’s to be within the airport,” Bayless stated.

His occupancy costs at Chicago O’Hare are set by two components: first, how a lot town leases the area for (American airports are often owned by native, federal or metropolis authorities), and second, “it’s important to pay the airways which have gates round you as a result of they convey in your clients.”

“And the busier the airport, clearly, the costlier occupancy prices can be,” he stated.

However within the case of the Chex Combine, Bayless insisted that “any person’s making an attempt to gouge.”

The ACI-NA spokesperson stated airports often conduct pricing audits to make sure compliance. Within the meantime, in the event you’re mad on the costs, White advisable bringing your personal meals.

“You possibly can’t try this with liquids, however you’re not going to get any grief from TSA if you wish to convey a bag of chips,” he stated. “It goes by means of the X-ray machine simply positive.”