Who Really Shops At High-End Airport Stores? A Lot Of People, And They Spend Thousands.

The modern mall has seen better days, but you wouldn’t know that looking at airport shopping centers. Airports are a bright spot in what is otherwise frequently called the retail apocalypse, with luxury retailers cashing in on shoppers stuck in one location with hours to kill and cash to burn. Airport shopping isn’t just about duty-free cosmetics and booze anymore. For wealthy travelers, it’s about casually adding a Chanel Gabrielle bag to your carry-on luggage, and London’s Heathrow Airport is a growing destination for this kind of cash throw down. In addition to dozens of luxury stores at Heathrow, the transportation hub launched its Personal Shopper service in October, where more than one million VIP travelers have put one of 24 stylists to work pulling apparel and accessories for them while they wait in one of Heathrow’s VIP lounges. Celebrities and fashionistas like model Lily Aldridge have documented their travels through the VIP lounges on Instagram — and the popularity and prestige of these airport areas seems to be on the up and up. Read more at Yahoo! Style.