Alistair Gordon
speaker
62 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Alistair Gordon’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
The fascinating moment is 60s, early 70s, you have a really pretty intense series of hijackings, you know, mainly Cuban exiles who were hijacking planes to go back to Cuba. Also, you know, that famous bombing in Jordan where terrorists blew up three airplanes on the runway at the same time. It was kind of extraordinary.
So to your first question about, you know, why do you buy a suitcase in an airport? Suddenly you had this incredible group of people who had ready cash, or at least sparkling credit cards, and you've got them trapped for three hours, you know? I mean, like the ideal capital situation, right?
It began with just simple shops, certain kind of newsstands and snack bars, and now it's huge luxury items, you know, that...
I mean, do you ever go through security and then go back out through security to have a smoke or something? No. Once you're through that nightmare, do you really want to go through it again? Yeah. You know, whereas before 9-11, it wasn't that big a deal. So, yeah, you really have them stuck there.
And of course, that concourse, what the engineers called the sterile concourse, you know, you've been stripped of any possible dangerous weapon, but you also can't leave. So you're the ideal target for marketing.
Yeah, yeah. It's no great secret, you know, and that new airport that opened in Dubai or the new terminal, it's only got like, you know, the highest level of luxury goods for sale in this place. And people apparently now go there who want to get Louboutin shoes and they don't want to go all the way to Paris. They go to the airport to buy their shoes. Yeah.
I think the people who go to the shop, they don't just go in and buy a shoe and then leave. I think they're going somewhere. But, you know, they don't wait to go to Paris. They get it there because it's just accessible. I mean, I do it too. We're all kind of sluts for, you know, commercials. Shopping is a kind of an addictive habit.
I always look, you know, occasionally buy a piece of clothing at a good airport. But there's a moment of, I think there's this sort of intoxication, you know, when you go into a place and it gets your mind out of the realities of what's happening around you.
Oh, totally. Yeah. And it could change so quickly. I mean, if I'd done that thing I did in Singapore whenever it was, you know, pre-9-11... If you did that now, you would be a terrorist. I mean, I've seen even people at those security checkpoints, you know, just someone who's haggard and tired and angry and hasn't had a meal, you know, whatever. And they say something rude to the security guys.
And they're practically arrested on the spot. The other reaction that I find fascinating, and I've been tracking this a little bit, is airport designers attempt to address that high level of angst, right? San Francisco built in one of their terminals, they have a yoga and a meditation center, which I've used and actually is wonderful.
Yeah, you just go in and do a lotus position an hour before your flight. It's very nice. You go through the horrors of security and then you go... They also have a beautiful bamboo grove. I mean, that's That to me is almost more important than any of the economic stuff. The idea of addressing just the horrors of the anxiety of travel.
Getting them out of that headset of like you're just cattle being prodded through a horrible cattle gate.
You want me to be an expert in who's buying baggage at a fucking airport? Who do you think I am? Jesus Christ. Oh, let me just call up my friend in the luggage department. I have no idea. I think I do know one thing. Occasionally I go to this, you know, this Woodbury Commons. It's upstate. It's this incredible discount place. But it's super luxury goods.
I mean, you go there and the line outside Gucci shop is like about a mile long because you have these Japanese, Germans, Italians. I see all of them are their families from China and they get there. And this is true. This is not an airport, but they buy huge wheelies. You know, not the wheelie that you and I use when we go on a weekend job interview or something.
these giant things and they filled them with all this luxury goods because it's half the price of what they'd pay in Tokyo or Paris or whatever.
I'm not saying that's the only reason. No, I mean, I think some of it must be that. But some of it's also when you're traveling, you know, it's not a bad time to push the sale of a suitcase, you know, to someone who's traveling. I mean, I've bought a few suitcases at airports. You have? Yeah, I mean, I bought a new one at Istanbul Airport because it was really nice.
Istanbul has an amazing airport. I bought myself a new suitcase there because it was the best thing I'd ever seen. My wife or someone had taken the bag I usually took on long trips, and I needed a new one. And I was sitting there for three hours, and I went, well, I'll just buy this now. It seems kind of overpriced, but it's really nice. I don't know. This is, again, anecdotal. I have no idea.
Don't quote me on any of this.
Yeah. Yes, you know, to get into my personal life. I remember taking the suitcase, the brand new one, which is way too expensive. I would never normally buy a suitcase that expensive. Transferring all my stuff from the old suitcase into the new suitcase, zipping it back up, going to the bathroom, coming back and having a new suitcase that I had to then go and check in and throwing out the old one.
Where did you throw it out? Oh, my God.
Showing 41–60 of 62 · page 3 of 4
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