Airport retail experts say, however, that most passengers are unlikely to become captive customers until they have cleared the security checkpoint.

Can a captive customer get a competitive service?

That could drive up prices and make the Pentagon a captive customer to one supplier.

The end of the Soviet Union meant the plant lost its captive customers.

To protect their captive customers, they may also offer advantageous terms not available to others in the market.

"We would rather have Sony as a captive customer for 50 percent of the output," he said.

And they have an advantage over most other retailers: captive customers.

The country's oil companies are moving to secure market outlets and captive customers for their crude.

Giving parents the power to choose alternative schools would start to break up that monopoly, which frightens those who profit from captive customers.

And considering that ship passengers are, in effect, captive customers, it's a wonder it took Disney so long.