Posts in the category "Shopping":

Ready for St. Patrick’s Day festivities?

The Chicago airports are. Today, Friday, March 12, Irish dancers from the Trinity Academy will perform at both O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and at Midway International Airport (MDW). Performances will be 3 to 5 p.m. at O’Hare (in Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 5) and at Midway in Concourse A near the “Battle of Midway” exhibit.

And if you are traveling through Philadelphia International Airport (PHL ) between now and Sunday, March 14th, the Gap store there would like you drop your pants.

Old blue jeans collected by Gap stores nationwide will be turned into cotton fiber insulation.  And anyone who leaves a pair of pants will get a coupon good for 30% off their next denim purchase.

The project is a partnership with the Cotton. From Blue to Green campaign, which has so far turned 200 tons of recycled jeans into insulation for more than 540 houses built in areas destroyed by natural disasters .

Categories: Airport shops, Entertainment, Events, Fun Stuff, Shopping
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It’s not just Sunday – it’s Souvenir Sunday! The day we unpack our bags and find all the stuff we bought when we were stuck at the airport.

This week, I roped some great stuff while spending a few hours at DFW International Airport.

There was plenty of Longhorn memorabilia to choose from -

And this chocolate bar  – which doubled as lunch.

And while the store clerk assured me those were real scorpions inside these lollipops,

I went home instead with a pocketful of these snazzy keychains.

Did you find  great souvenir last time you were stuck at the airport? If it’s under $10, “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Airport shops, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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The 2010 Winter Olympics will soon wind down and the media, the sports fans, the athletes, and those cute mascots will be clearing out.   Everyone will certainly want some souvenirs to take home and what better place to get them than at the airport?

Several Olympics-only stores at the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) have been selling Olympics souvenirs for about a year. Every non-Olympics store in the airport has been allowed to stock Olympics souvenirs as well.  So on this last weekend of the 2010 Winter Olympics, we’ll do our Souvenir Sunday shopping at YVR.

A great first choice in the under $10 category (our budget for Souvenir Sunday):  pins.

Buying and trading Olympic-themed pins seems to be an official sport now and the airport not only sells the pins but has a special pin-trading area set up in the terminal.

The now-famous $10 red mittens are also for sale the airport.  I bought several pairs of them when I visited YVR before the games and now wish I’d bought a few more.

This can of maple syrup is adorable, but it weighs in at over three ounces so don’t try taking it home in your carry-on.  Consider instead these cute Olympic-themed cold packs, which could come in handy as you begin training for the next Winter Olympics.

Have you found a great souvenir while stuck at the airport?  We’d love to see it!  If it’s under $10 or less, “of” the city or region and, ideally a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. It may end up featured on Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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Lufthansa pilots have scheduled a four day strike beginning on Monday, February 22, 2010.  Negotiations are currently underway, but if those talks fail to avert the strike, the carrier will be forced to cancel most of its flights. And that will leave passengers stuck at the airport.

The upside? If you do end up spending more time than you planned at a German airport, you’ll be able to find plenty of things to do.

Munich Airport, for example, has an outdoor observation deck and a great indoor/outdoor beer garden with an on-site brewery.

The Hamburg Airport also has observation decks as well as the Airport Model Exhibition – a miniature version of the airport complete with buildings, taxiways, runways, landing strips, and 8,000 light-emitting diodes that light up the tiny airport’s night sky – all on a scale of 1:500.

And at the Dusseldorf, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin airports you’ll also find Lufthansa WorldShop stores, which offer a promising spot to do some Souvenir Sunday shopping.

The airline recently opened its second WorldShop store at the Frankfurt Airport (Terminal 1, Area B) and, like the others; the store is filled with travel items, backpacks, travel accessories, electronics, model aircraft, toys, and some other fun stuff.  Shoppers can earn Miles & More award miles for items purchased here and – here’s a nice twist – also buy items using accumulated miles.

I’m especially taken with this A380 Cookie Jar

The cool container sells for about $107 – or 22,000 miles, so we can’t make it our pick for Souvenir Sunday, which usually has an upper limit of $10.  But poking around the WorldShop catalog I did find this cute guy, which sells for 9 Euros (about $12) or 7500 miles.

But since this is Souvenir Sunday and do we have that under $10 rule (which may need to be re-adjusted soon for inflation..),  we offer these items sent along by the folks at Virginia’s Richmond International Airport(RIC), where a variety of local museums are represented in the  Hudson News store in the airport’s Atrium area, next to the security screening checkpoint for Concourse B.

These items are from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum

(Beer mugs! )

(Poe action figure – with removable raven! )

Have you found a great souvenir while stuck at the airport? If it’s under $10, “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. It may show up as our pick for a future Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Airport shops, Airports, Bars, Fun Stuff, Layover, Museums, Observation Decks, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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(Photo courtesy Pam Mandel, Nerd’s Eye View)

On Sundays, I unpack my bags and take a look at some of the fun, under $10, “of”the city items I picked up while stuck at the airport.

Last week, it was gee-gaws from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

This week, I’ve got souvenirs sent in by fellow travelers.

Beth Whitman, of Wanderlust and Lipstick, found two shelves of regionally-made soups at the Made In Washington store at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

And my buddy Cheryl Smalley went shopping at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD):

Did you find some great souvenirs last time you were stuck at the airport?

If so, please snap a photo and send it along. It may end up on next week’s Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Airport shops, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday
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