Originally Posted by
Aviator147
I wish all our hubs had a grab and go section/hot bar /salad bar Akin to the one that was in the now old LGA terminal. Great hot foods and salads by weight. We had 30% off the normal airport price so it wasn't like you spend $20 for a salad. In my utopia widget air line, we have a spot like this in all our hubs to grab food. Does ORD still have the UAL employee cafeteria? That place was cool.
Most employee cafeterias went the way of the dodo. Back in the mid 90s, PIT launched quite the revolution, with name brands and “regular retail” prices.
Most places before that, since about the 70s, had mostly industrial food from no-name food service at jacked up prices and impossibly slow service. That’s why employee cafeterias were a thing, so the working folks could get a bite at a reasonable price and get back to work.
The PIT experiment caused quite a stir. People would go out to the airport just to eat and shop (This was all pre 9/11). Lots of airports tried to do the same thing, and so the need for employee cafeterias was gone, and most were seen as a hassle and faded away.
Food service has slowly crept back to where it was in the 70s. Sure, some of it is name brand, but the high prices are back, and it can be pretty slow. Often it is one concessionaire that runs all the food outlets in the airport, and you can bet the airport gets their cut off the top. Pax loads are crazy high, and that doesn’t help either.