In this episode of The Capital Runway, we speak with Stephen Baldi, concessionaire & operator at Reagan National & Washington Dulles airports.
In This Episode:
Stephen Baldi, Concessionaire & Operator at Reagan National & Washington Dulles airports, takes us through his 18 year career of being in the business of airport concessions, the importance of seeking mentorship, and much more. Take a listen!
Have questions for us? We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@thecapitalrunway.com
For more information, please visit our website at https://thecapitalrunway.com.
Staff:
Tanisha Lewis, VP of DISI
Jaimini Erskine, VP of Marketing & Concessions
Charles Wilson, Co-host/Co-producer
Amanda Ohbayashi, Co-host/Co-producer/Social media producer
Ryan Burdick, Editor/Co-producer
Bong Lee, Graphics
Brian McCoy, Digital Strategy/Co-producer
Sagia Depty, Marketing Lead/Co-producer
Adam Lawrence, Web producer
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[00:00:00] Amanda: Hi. I'm Amanda.
[00:00:01] Charles: I'm Charles. Welcome to the Capital Runway podcast.
[00:00:05] Amanda: We're here to share experiences of our people, functions, and operations of both Washington Dulles and Reagan National airports.
[00:00:15] Charles: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Capital Runway. Amanda, how are you today?
[00:00:18] Amanda: I am doing well. How are you?
[00:00:20] Charles: Good. Life is good. [unintelligible 00:00:21].
[00:00:23] Amanda: I think that should be your tagline.
[00:00:26] Charles: Yes. Life is good.
[00:00:27] Amanda: Life is good.
[00:00:28] Charles: No complaints. I just got back from a family vacation. We went to the Grand Cayman Islands. Had a great time there. Spent four or five days. I've got the tan to prove it.
[00:00:39] Amanda: [laughs] That's awesome. I love that.
[00:00:43] Charles: What have you been up to?
[00:00:44] Amanda: Oh, not much. I'm planning some summer trips for-- Upcoming. Hopefully, getting over to Europe like I had mentioned earlier, but also I'm trying to plan a trip to Japan.
[00:00:58] Charles: Nice.
[00:01:00] Amanda: I know that Japan is a very popular place to be right now. Hopefully, I can get over there in the fall. I have some family there.
[00:01:08] Charles: I'm still trying to get out to Iceland. We'll see. Hopefully, this summer we'll make it happen.
[00:01:13] Amanda: You have that new PLAY Airlines option.
[00:01:15] Charles: Yes, I know. Straight out of Dulles. [laughs]
[00:01:18] Amanda: Cool.
[00:01:19] Charles: Today our special guest is none other than Mr. Stephen Baldi. He's one of the concessionaires here at the airport.
[00:01:27] Amanda: Cool. Which airport does he work at?
[00:01:29] Charles: He has concessions at both DCA and Dulles airports.
[00:01:32] Amanda: Okay. Cool.
[00:01:33] Charles: It's going to be interesting hearing his story and how he got here and just experiences that he's willing to share with our audience.
[00:01:40] Amanda: Yes. I'm super excited to talk to him.
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[00:01:43] Charles: Stephen, how are you today?
[00:01:45] Stephen Baldi: I am great. Good to be here.
[00:01:48] Charles: Awesome. Welcome.
[00:01:49] Amanda: Welcome. We are so excited to have you and can't wait to talk to you.
[00:01:54] Charles: Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got interested in the concession industry?
[00:01:58] Stephen: Well, first of all, thank you for having me here. It's so exciting to have an opportunity to share my story. I used to be in property management, residential property management right here in Arlington, Virginia. One of my tenants was a leasing agent for Westfield. One day she came into my office and she said, "Stephen, I see you walking around the property, how you engage with the residents, and I think you should be doing more." In my mind, I was thinking, "This woman doesn't really know me, what my background is," but I heard her out and at the end of the conversation, she said they had an opportunity at National Airport and it paid $95,000 a year.
At the time I was making about $30,000 a year and a free apartment so my immediate response was, "When do I start?"
[laughter]
They brought me in for an interview. I did not get the initial job, but they called me about a month later and said, "Hey, listen. We have an opportunity. There's only 30 days left on the contract, but if we don't keep the contract, we'll put you at one of our shopping malls. At the time they managed Annapolis Mall, Wheaton Mall, and one other, Montgomery Mall. I thought, "Let's try it," and they actually won the contract. We went from managing just the retail stores to the full concession program, food and beverage, and retail.
I stayed in that position for three years. We completely redeveloped the airport and I learned a business from top-down using other people's money. Then in 2008, I decided to take the leap and start my own firm.
[00:03:38] Charles: All right. Great.
[00:03:40] Amanda: What was it that really brought you to the decision to join airports in that capacity?
[00:03:45] Stephen: I will tell you, I really enjoyed the first three years being in development because I learned leasing and construction and management, and because of my role as a landlord, I had the privilege of meeting most of the major companies in the industry and the brands. I understood from that perspective what it took to be successful at these two airports, but also nationally.
They really pushed me to seek out the ACDBE certification, which is a certification that designates women, minority, and veteran-owned firms. Once I took the leap and certified and started my own company, them and other tenants, they celebrated the fact that I had been at National for two years but really were encouraging me to take the next [unintelligible 00:04:30].
[00:04:31] Amanda: What shops do you manage or operate at the airports?
[00:04:35] Stephen: Locally, at Dulles and National, we operate Dunkin' Donuts, Potbelly, Smashburger, and Timber Pizza. We really pride ourselves being a local operator. Though other opportunities are important to us nationally, it's like sports, I'm a big sports guy, you play differently when you're in front of your home crowd. MWAA in Washington, DC is the home crowd for me, and this place is just really special. Although we have a national presence, being here in DC is really important to me personally.
[00:05:08] Charles: What is your day like as a concessionaire here at the airport?
[00:05:12] Stephen: Control chaos. Airports are a very dynamic environment to do business. It's very different from being an operator of a restaurant on the street. The airport is like a family because the businesses here are so close. Even the people on the MWAA side, they're all people who support the business, because when someone travels through the airport, if they have a great experience or they have a bad experience, it wasn't an experience at Dunkin' Donuts. It was an experience at National Airport or Dulles International. We understand that and so we just keep that top of mind.
My last 48 hours, just to describe to you what a typical week is, yesterday I met with my team at Timber Pizza. We opened it in November. We were talking about how we could better display our products so people can know more about the brand. We're looking at things structurally and from a digital content perspective so that people just know the brand better. I left that and then I went to Smashburger to pick up our deposits. I had a strategic meeting with our CFO, our director of human resources, to talk about the growth that's happening in 18 months that we need to prepare for today. My days are really diverse but what's most consistent about them is I get to do with people I enjoy working with.
[00:06:34] Amanda: If someone is listening to us who owns a local shop in DC and is interested in maybe opening a place in the airport, what's that process like? How do they get involved in that?
[00:06:46] Stephen: I don't like to give advice, so I will just experience share.
[00:06:49] Amanda: Sure.
[00:06:49] Stephen: To any brand that operates successfully on the street, it is a different sport coming into the airports. I would seek out mentorship. I've made myself available to local small operators because all the people who supported my career when I've always asked them how can I support, how can I compensate you for your time, they say, "Stephen, when you're in a position to mentor someone else, just do it."
18 years into this, I don't know that I have a lot of advice to give, but I sure have a whole lot of experiences to share. I often open myself up to other local brands, sometimes with the outcome of seeking partnership, but other times just trying to share with them what I've learned over my career.
[00:07:35] Amanda: Great answer.
[00:07:37] Charles: Let's rewind back to 2020 and the height of COVID.
[00:07:42] Stephen: Let's not.
[laughter]
[00:07:46] Charles: How did you manage getting through the pandemic?
[00:07:49] Stephen: I will be honest. Like most people, I did not foresee the depth and the time that we would be required to sustain what we did. The fortunate part, I started the company with assets in New York City. We started to transition out of that program in September of 2019. We actually sold March 18th of 2020. March the 23rd we shut the company down for 16 months. Then really it came down to family and faith. I personally had to pivot to understand what were the things that were important to me. It was the people who were still calling. The people who still smiled when I walked into a room.
My daughter, who's seven years old, her name is Justice, she didn't care that Smashburger or Dunkin' Donuts was closed. She just cared that when she tells a joke, I laugh and when she wants me to chase her, I run after her. I was able to spend a lot more time with her and other people in my family. Then other people like MWAA really stepped up to understand that this was going to be deeper and longer than anyone expected. They really looked to advocate on our behalf to make sure that tenants were able to sustain such deep loss and then to come out good on the other side.
I'm thankful of the partnership we have with MWAA and MarketPlace because they stepped up in a lot of ways and gave us a path to full recovery.
[00:09:27] Amanda: Has there been anything about working in concessions that's really surprised you?
[00:09:31] Stephen: I'm surprised that 18 years into this I'm still having fun.
[00:09:36] Amanda: [laughs] That's great.
[00:09:37] Stephen: I'm bringing in new brands. I'm still close with my staff. I'm surprised that we have been able to position ourselves as a company that local brands can trust. My career in airport concessions has been unbelievable, but it sure has been a whole lot of fun.
[00:09:54] Charles: How has the industry changed over the last five years?
[00:09:57] Stephen: In a lot of ways. I will say COVID really impacted us in a way that everybody is aware of. I won't go through that now. Technology, the deployment of technology, self-ordering kiosks, ability of people to have touchless experiences. Technology is really driving not only food and beverage in concessions and retail but even in street locations you see technology being deployed. I'm a supporter of it. I believe in it. I do think there needs to be a balance that is made between technology and a guest's experience.
I do believe technology has allowed operators like myself to take resources that we would typically pay for a physical person to either take your order or to serve your order. It's enabled us to deploy those same resources in other ways, to improve the experience, not to reduce how much we're spending, but to deploy it in a different way. That's been helpful. I do think as more technology comes online, we do need to keep at top of mind that, at the end of the day, people want to engage. It provides a certain touchpoint that a screen cannot.
There needs to be a balance in the brands that we look at or that we are looking at to go forward with. We're going to be intentional about striking that balance between technology but making sure people know that we're caring about them.
[00:11:23] Amanda: Absolutely. Yes. You've already addressed this, but outside of human engagement and that interaction, what do you think customers or passengers are really looking for from an airport concession?
[00:11:35] Stephen: One of the unique opportunities as an airport concessionaire is you get a new face every day. If you're operating a location on a street-- If I had a Dunkin' Donuts on a street, I would probably assume that 30% or 40% of my daily guests would be recurring, people who have been there the day before, the week before. An airport, you really don't have that. I think what people are looking for when they're traveling is compassion. I think they are looking for people to acknowledge them and see them for the traveler that they are, to understand that speed of service can happen concurrently with great food.
Then innovation, technology, consistency. We already talked about local presence. I think people want to see brands that they know and recognize because there is a expected experience when it's something that they know. 20, 30 years ago, you would go into an airport and they would have a Stephens Coffee. There's some of that still with proprietary concepts, but people want to know what they are signing up for. An airport's ability to balance proprietary brands with known concepts, I think is important to guests. They want to have fun.
We interact and ask people as they're waiting for their food where are they going. If it's a big school and it's clearly a team, where are they about to play? Are they excited? Those are things that we get the opportunity to do that are playful. It is a serious business. I think guests want consistency, speed of service, quality of food, and a smiling face to thank them for them being there, because without them, we've experienced that, it's not a lot of fun when people aren't traveling. We're fortunate and grateful to see people flying again. If you're listening, book a ticket if you haven't recently, because we'd love to see you at Washington, Reagan, and Dulles International soon.
[00:13:28] Charles: Final question. We always ask our guests if there's any final thoughts they want to leave our listeners before we go.
[00:13:36] Stephen: Yes. I will tell you, listen, again, I never thought that I would be in this industry for 18 years, nor did I think I would be having so much fun in it, but what is most important for me is to continue just to develop relationships in the industry. My life has moved at the speed of relationships and so has the business. Again, I don't want to name-drop, but there are so many people who have supported me over my career. Without them, I wouldn't be the leader, I wouldn't be the business owner, in a lot of ways, I wouldn't be the man that I am without them interceding and advocating in my life. I'm just really thankful for how people have supported me, my family, my peers.
[00:14:21] Charles: That's a wrap.
[00:14:22] Amanda: That is it, but thank you so much for joining us. This was fascinating. We really enjoyed talking to you.
[00:14:29] Stephen: Thank you for being here.
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[00:14:31] Amanda: That was super interesting. I really enjoyed talking to him.
[00:14:35] Charles: Yes. Just how he got started and how he was mentored to get to this point and how he's willing to reach back and mentor the next generational leaders at the airport was pretty inspiring.
[00:14:50] Amanda: Yes. I thought so too. Speaking of new concessions, we just announced a ton of new ones that are coming to both airports, actually. Did you hear about that?
[00:15:02] Charles: I did. I've already had a chance to experience a couple of them-
[00:15:05] Amanda: Oh yes?
[00:15:05] Charles: -for lunch hour.
[00:15:06] Amanda: Oh, which ones are your favorite?
[00:15:07] Charles: Cava. Yes. I've been there twice already.
[00:15:11] Amanda: Cool. I'm super excited personally about all of the new coffee options. I'm a big fan of Compass and Zeke's Coffee. I go there pretty much every weekend. I'm very excited to see them in the airport.
[00:15:25] Charles: It's like local DC is coming to DCA and Dulles airports.
[00:15:28] Amanda: I know. I love it. Like I said earlier, I think local options are really important in an airport, so I'd really love to see them.
[00:15:34] Charles: Those coffee shops that people see in their neighborhoods, when they take a flight from the airport they can have it here too.
[00:15:40] Amanda: Exactly, or just for people who are traveling through and might not get a chance to leave the airport, for people to experience a little bit of what DC has to offer, super awesome.
[00:15:52] Charles: Are there any others you plan on checking out anytime soon?
[00:15:54] Amanda: Oh, for sure. I am very excited about Rappahannock Oyster Company at Dulles, and the pasta one, I think it's Sfoglina. I can never say that properly. I'm sorry if I butchered it. How about you?
[00:16:08] Charles: You know what, I'm a simple guy, Potbelly. When I take a trip out of Dulles, I'll be stopping there. I always look forward to having a great pretzel, so Auntie Anne's.
[00:16:19] Amanda: Oh yes.
[00:16:19] Charles: I going to check that as well. Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel is my favorite.
[00:16:23] Amanda: I'm excited about this Freshii one, bowls and smoothies. You can never go wrong with a smoothie. When you're just waiting for a flight or on the flight, it's easy to take on the flight. It's not going to--
[00:16:34] Charles: It's not going to smell up the plane.
[00:16:35] Amanda: Not going to smell up the plane, exactly.
[00:16:38] Charles: Your fellow passengers will be happy with you.
[00:16:40] Amanda: [laughs] Charles, why don't you tell people where they can email us?
[00:16:44] Charles: Oh, yes. If you have ideas for our podcast, if you want us to interview a guest, or if you just have questions, you can reach us at info@thecapitalrunway.com. That is info@thecapitalrunway.com.
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[00:17:01] Amanda: Cool. Hope everyone has a great day. We'll talk to you guys later.
[00:17:06] Charles: Have a great day.
[00:17:08] [END OF AUDIO]