2 ms·

My roommate through all of college was a man from Taiwan. We were and still are good friends. He started dating a girl from Japan around our Sophomore year and

by pard68 3y ago

My roommate through all of college was a man from Taiwan. We were and still are good friends. He started dating a girl from Japan around our Sophomore year and the next thing I knew our room was full of cases of canned coffee. Turns out the girl's father had tried to start up an export business shipping cans of coffee to the US. Didn't work, but my roommate loved it so his girlfriend off-loaded all of it on him, after her father had done the same to her.

theGnuMe 3y ago
This would probably work now... hot canned coffee in airports, specifically, as the Starbucks are always backed up and never open for the very early or very late flights. I would target the major international airports first. Also my kid is really into Ramune as a soda. Even our almost "rural" edge of the metro supermarket is carrying it.
- version_five 3y ago
  I think airports work on a concession model where companies essentially bid to get a spot there, like a mall food court. So the business model is to get a monopoly and then sell overpriced crap, which doesn't lend itself to innovation and makes the market hard to break in to. I agree it would be awesome to be able to get it at the airport.
  - blamazon 3y ago
    This is changing, slowly - airport leaders today recognize the value of innovation for customer experience and are making moves where possible to back out of such models, plus welcoming local business, although the difficulties of operating in an airport environment does still lend the environment to larger players, or smaller ones operating through a middleman. KATL and KMSP are two that come to mind for me. Entrepeneurs should definitely consider reaching out to airports that are locally managed - often their hands are tied due to contracts, but those will time out someday.

2 ms·

My roommate through all of college was a man from Taiwan. We were and still are good friends. He started dating a girl from Japan around our Sophomore year and

by pard68 3y ago

theGnuMe 3y ago
This would probably work now... hot canned coffee in airports, specifically, as the Starbucks are always backed up and never open for the very early or very late flights. I would target the major international airports first. Also my kid is really into Ramune as a soda. Even our almost "rural" edge of the metro supermarket is carrying it.
- version_five 3y ago
  I think airports work on a concession model where companies essentially bid to get a spot there, like a mall food court. So the business model is to get a monopoly and then sell overpriced crap, which doesn't lend itself to innovation and makes the market hard to break in to. I agree it would be awesome to be able to get it at the airport.
  - blamazon 3y ago
    This is changing, slowly - airport leaders today recognize the value of innovation for customer experience and are making moves where possible to back out of such models, plus welcoming local business, although the difficulties of operating in an airport environment does still lend the environment to larger players, or smaller ones operating through a middleman. KATL and KMSP are two that come to mind for me. Entrepeneurs should definitely consider reaching out to airports that are locally managed - often their hands are tied due to contracts, but those will time out someday.