Flier Is Furious Over This Airport Store Fee Are You Paying It, Too?

The internet (or at least Reddit) is ablaze after a shopper at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) noticed a small surcharge on his receipt from the travel retailer Hudson Group.

The shopper found that, after buying a copy of The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon for $21.99, the retailer added a surcharge of 3%. They posted a copy of the receipt to Reddit, which included the statement, “A 3% surcharge has been applied to your purchase. This charge is for employee and retention programs and is not a gratuity.”

The amount of the fee came out to $0.66, and was included in the subtotal on which New York’s 8.875% sales tax was calculated. In the post, the passenger also noted they used the self-checkout and did not interact with an employee while in the store.

The fee is authorized by Hudson’s landlords, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which operates JFK, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, and New York Stewart International Airport. Retailers have been permitted (but not required) to charge the fees since late 2024 to help offset the increased costs of doing business at the airport.

Retailers at airports face challenges their high street counterparts don’t, such as attracting talent to workplaces with the added hassle factor of going through security checkpoints, and limiting their workforce to workers who can pass background checks to qualify them to receive airport access badges. Airport retailers typically need to offer higher pay, benefits, or other incentives to attract and retain workers.

Airport retail is also labor-intensive. In addition to screening employees coming on for their shifts, retailers must also submit to screening for every item of merchandise sold in the store. Everything from books to souvenir keychains to $10 bags of Cheez-Its must also be screened by TSA, adding complexity to replenishing stocks.

It’s also worth noting that the item in question was a book, which prevents the retailer from raising the price. PANYNJ operates a “street pricing” model for retailers, restricting vendors in their terminals from marking up anything more than 15% compared to street-level retail in the city. Books, however, which come from their publishers with a price already printed on, are an exception. Airport retailers are restricted by their lease agreements from marking up books and magazines to cover their higher costs. Books are popular retail items at airports, and booksellers are left with little option to cover their increased costs aside from a surcharge.

While the customer who posted to Reddit noted they used the self-checkout facility in the store, the fee also goes to support workers they didn’t interact with, including workers who assist when the self-checkouts don’t work, who ring up purchases for passengers who are unable to use the self-checkouts, stocking and tidying merchandise, or performing back-office administrative functions.

The airports operated by PANYNJ are not the only ones who allow their retailers to add a surcharge. Philadelphia International Airport also has one (3%), as does Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (4.5%), and Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (4%).

Other airports where concessionaires are feeling the pinch have other ways of accommodating the issue. Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of Los Angeles International Airport, recently removed the 18% markup cap for its terminal concession operators, allowing them to further markup non-essential food and retail items (over the counter medications, bottled water, and baby products still have caps).

Concession operators at LAX were squeezed by the operator’s living wage mandate for all airport workers, which recently reached $25 per hour plus health benefits.