Even though the people who walk past are unlikely to be want to buy a suitcase right now, they are still the target demographic. How many other locations are there in a city where you can open a store where 100% of the people that walk past are people that travel by air, and thus the type of people that will be in the market for your products?

How many non-airport locations around an area like the San Francisco Bay Area would you need to open a store in order to pretty much guarantee that every person who flies internationally at least once a year walks in front of your store? A dozen? A few dozen? How about if you do it in an airport? Perhaps 2? (eg, SFO has 2 international terminals).

Some of the luggage shops you find in airports are for a particular brand. eg, there is a Tumi store in Newark airport. Even if that store was to never actually sell a single piece of luggage, they are building their brand and allowing people to see and try their product range before going home and ordering the same pieces from their website or from another store - all of which works in their favor.

The remainder of the stores generally sell high-end luggage which they would likely be able to ship to a home location if someone purchased something and was unable to take it with them or collect on their return trip.

At the end of the day, don't think of these as luggage stores, just think of them as high-end retail, marketing to a demographic that frequents airports (high wealth/travelers).

撇開那些突然需要更多或不同行李箱的人，機場是您對行李箱不滿意的少數幾個地方之一。當他們坐在您的壁櫥裡時，他們很好。您已經使用了多年，並且它們可以正常工作。但是，在收拾行李，將行李從車上拖到機場並檢查之後的一兩個小時內，您就知道自己討厭的一切：它們太大，容納不下，太重了，您不喜歡輪子，手柄太短，顏色過時或與其他所有人的顏色相同，您可以命名。

現在，您有一個小時的時間要殺人，除了花太多錢喝咖啡或用完一些閱讀材料，別無所求。一家裝滿光榮手提箱的商店。也許他們有一個你剛才在找別人使用的。您可以抬起它們，打開和關閉它們，處理手柄，然後將腦袋與剛剛簽入的討厭的手提箱進行比較。也許您會當場購買並將它們運回家等待您的歸還。回來時，您更有可能記筆記並在線訂購。如果商店是連鎖店的一部分，那麼他們不在乎您要做什麼，該位置可能比實際銷售商店更像是陳列室。當然，如果您攜帶多個不喜歡的隨身攜帶的行李，則可能實際上是當場購買了替換物，然後將它們交換掉並扔掉了舊的。但是，如果您從不在那裡購買標準尺寸的手提箱，只要最終購買一個，它就可以賺很多錢。哎呀，即使您不走，如果您路過並看到名字，並且看到行李箱似乎沒有廢話，他們可能會為此感到財務上的理由。

手提箱可能無法運輸。那是替代品的內置市場。

Not sure this fully explains it but the shopping area has certainly become an important revenue stream for many airports. I know several airports that have been redesigned to force passengers to pass in front of as many shops as possible, with S-shaped corridors and no short-cuts. Consequently, they sell a lot of things that most people don't need right there (and people buy them!). They are designed as a shopping location, not as a way to provide necessities so whether passengers already have a suitcase is not particularly relevant.

My local airport even advertises a service by which they keep what you bought until you return. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that they do sell a lot of bags so that in itself explains why these shops are profitable. Presumably, it works because airports are places where many affluent travelers have to wait or at least walk through every day.

It's straightforward ... people have an old, rubbishy, carry-on or roll-on case...

They stop at the samsonite shop, they buy a fancy new cabron-fiber one...

they transfer their stuff to the new one and throw out the old one, or, just take both.

If you watch the shops in question, you'll see this happening all the time.

Also very commonly (I've done this, actually a number of times) someone will have no roll-on with them; you might be carrying say a couple of paperbacks, a shopping bag, and a laptop or something - so you go right ahead and buy a new cabron-fiber roll-on.

Note that the shops you describe only sell carry on styles. If they sold hold-luggage, then just as you say it would be illogical!

I think it is simply becuase there have been instances of people who had their luggages broken in transit from home to airport or between transfers. Why else?