Longtime shoeshine stand loses concession at MSP airport

The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted unanimously on Monday to award a three-year contract for three shoeshine stands at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to D.G. Express, ending the reign of Royal Zeno Shoe Shine, a small Black-owned family-run shoeshine company whose roots go back 60 years.

The 9-0 vote followed an impassioned plea by the widow of an attorney who once represented the Zeno family, urging the commission to keep the Zeno business. But commissioners said that the decision was fair, although they gave no details on why they preferred D.G. Express over two other bidders.

D.G. Express also has a Black owner, Danny Givens Sr., who has operated at the airport since 2016. Saying fewer people are getting their shoes shined at the airport, the commission proposed to reduce the number of stands from five to three and award one contract.

Royal Zeno, who began shining shoes at the airport in 1962, bought out the previous owner in 1969, and operated his shoeshine stands until his death in 2009. His daughter, Rosemary, who had been shining shoes at the airport since the 1980s, took over the business.

Standing in the lobby outside the commission meeting room at the main terminal, Rosemary Zeno was in tears after the vote. "I'm just hurting, I'm just sad," she said. "The airport has come to this. ... I've been stabbed in the back."

Givens did not respond to requests for comment.

The lease agreements sets a minimum monthly rent of $2,100 for the three stands and $60 per month to cover utility costs.

Eric Johnson, director of commercial management and airline affairs, told the commission on Monday that a focus of the rating process was "customer experience." He said that the ranking on rent "was not a high driver."

While multiple people showed up at Monday's meeting to support Zeno Shoe Shine, the only one to speak was Gloria Weinblatt Her late husband, Alan Weinblatt, represented Royal Zeno Shoe Shine pro bono in 1998, the last time its presence at the airport was threatened.

"Why are you pitting minority businesses against minority businesses?" Weinblatt said. "If you think no one wears leather shoes, why are there many shops within the airport selling fine leather shoes? ... Why kill a 60-year-old Minneapolis-St. Paul airport business?"

She said reducing the number of shoeshine stands from five to three will harm the workers who are let go, other airport retailers and passengers. Givens said earlier he might hire some of Zeno's 11 employees.

In an e-mail to the Star Tribune last week, Jeff Lea, a spokesman for the commission, said there were fewer customers using the shoeshine service at the airport and at airports nationally and that many airports had ceased shoeshine services altogether.

In the hallway after the vote, Sherman Gray, 60, who said he has shined shoes at the Zeno stand said for 30 years, said, "I don't feel good. We are the better company. It makes no sense how they got control."