From Kiosk to Concourse: Lady Yum's Seatac Journey and the RFP That Could Change Everything

Here I sit, sweating my ass off on the eve of our first official RFP submission for Seatac airport, going through old photos of our two kiosks we've occupied over the last 7 years, and it occurred to me in an ADHD vision that this might be an interesting first blog post! SO I MUST WRITE IT NOW, obviously.

Submissions are due tomorrow at 3pm and we have been focused on little else than going to RFP submission trainings, meeting with architects, designing the potential space, and writing the 150+ pages that makes up our submission. We won't know if we win a space until September. 

Seatac sales constitute 30% of our revenue and our current lease at our kiosk in Concourse A expires at the end of 2025. It would be absolutely devastating to lose that location, but we can no longer stay where we currently are as we have officially graduated from the "Small Business Kiosk Program" and must bid for a space like the rest of the grown up businesses. 

Bidding for space at an airport is NO JOKE. It's highly competitive and extremely expensive and there are many rules you must follow or you'll get DENIED. 

As you may or may not know, Seatac is undergoing extensive renovations in the C concourse specifically to coincide with the FIFA World Cup that's coming to Seattle in 2026. There is a strict deadline to have all new spaces open by then. 

Here's a little glimpse into what the new Concource C is going to look like. More info here 

Anyway, all this planning has me a little nostalgic, so come take a walk down memory lane with me... 

We first opened at the airport in 2017 as an introductory Kiosk in the C Concourse. I found out about this opportunity by attending one of the previous Lease Group meetings when I quickly realized that I wasn’t ready to enter the formal bidding process. This program provides shorter leases and lower opening expenses, so small local businesses can test sales at the airport.

Here's a few images of our first set up... awe.. so amateur and cute. 

Then we got a glow up with custom graphics and it was super

Then we graduated to Intermediate Kiosk and had to build out our own custom counter. Timing for this buildout was not great considering I had just finished what would be my most difficult project to date (Pioneer Square) and I was truly burnt out. Russell managed the build of the kiosk and I’m sure it wasn’t a very pleasant experience for him either, but we did it and the result was gorgeous and THEN COVID HIT. Literally right as we moved to the A Concourse and unveiled our new custom kiosk, we had to shut all of our stores down. 
But isn’t it pretty (shoutout to LNL Builds who took on the challenge of me and operating in the airport)?!

What’s next for Lady Yum at SeaTac? Well we hope to win a space in the new C Concourse Expansion and we will find out in September. 
If we do win, the space will look something like this: 

Keep your fingers crossed for us! This is a pretty big deal for the entire company. 
in a future blog post, I’ll dive into the design process and share more about new products we’re currently conceptualizing!