I'm not sure why people are so offended by the "department stores" in the terminals? They subsidise the landing fees which contribute to the ticket price. So they make your ticket cheaper. Sure, it's a bit tedious if you fly frequently to have to trawl past them, but you dont stop and look so does it matter if it's a grey corridor or a row of Absolut? And for those of us who fly in, go straight to a meeting, straight back to the airport, but like to bring a small "pressie" back for family members great and small awaiting your return, it's easier to pick somethingup at the airport than make a specific trip into town.
My theory is that people's "offence" at these department stores is derived from a lack of balance between wanting to shop, and just wanting to fly. Let me use a non-flying example from my local shopping centre to illustrate the point.
In one area of my local centre, there is a 100m long mall known as the Fashion Mall. This mall connects the sole method of access between the original centre, and a major expansion to the centre's east which includes department stores, more major retailers, dining options and access to the adjacent transport hub.
Along the centre line of this mall, there are three casual mall leasing spaces, both with shelving and display cases of different sizes, configurations and the amount of space they use. Some of these stalls jut out into the mall more than others, restricting the area for free movement. This is further exacerbated when there are significant numbers of customers browsing or buying from these retailers.
Normally this isn't too much of a problem during non-peak periods. However when the centre reaches peak periods, this mall causes customer frustration and annoyance. People can't move freely through the space in a normal period of time, customers find it difficult to enter and exit stores along the mall, and people generally feel uncomfortable stuck in large, slow moving crowds. And of course because this is the only logical path available to traverse between the two areas, there's no way to get around this frustration.
Now let's translate that back to the airport experience. More often than not in the airport we are stuck on these same single paths as we move from counter to gate. There's no real way around the barriers and frustrations (ie. duty free concessions) put in our way. Sure, while the crowds might not be there; the shelves, promotional stands, display staff are crowds and barriers to movement by proxy.
While there are some who don't mind a bit of a browse or are looking for a specific product, the rest of us see these as barriers to movement that keep us from our end goal - either getting extra lounge time, or actually making it to the gate before the doors close.
So the better question is why, like the shopping centre, do airports deliberately allocate space and allow concession owners to lay their stores out in such a way that doesn't balance these needs. This stems from the problem of failing to balance the needs of all their customers, hence why people especially frequent flyers become annoyed at these barriers to achieving intended goal.
