Bringing local products produced by passionate entrepreneurs into the airports helps create a strong sense of place for travelers, from Chicago to New York to Los Angeles and beyond.
URW Airports is proud to support local businesses and thrilled to welcome Kat Connor and Lindzi Shanks, co-owners of Chicago-based premier gourmet marshmallow company XO Marshmallow to O’Hare. The company recently partnered with Avolta to sell their trendy line of marshmallows at Evolve in Terminal 5.
Like so many small businesses, XO Marshmallow was born from a simple idea, executed, with Connor making marshmallows as gifts to her family and friends during the holidays. Her hobby took off after serving homemade marshmallows at her law school graduation party where she soon realized becoming a practicing lawyer may not be in her future.
In a serendipitous moment, Connor met Shanks, owner of an online clothing boutique, who hired Connor to help run her local pop-up shop where she sold clothing and other gifts including a coffee mug. Connor mentioned her homemade marshmallows and the two decided to pair the mug and marshmallow which quickly became their top-selling item. Soon after, they became business partners.
After contributing $100 each to a business account, they were open for business with an online shop. The company was successful from the start with customers expressing interest in wanting to experience marshmallows in a cafe, so they created a Kickstarter campaign for a marshmallow cafe. It only took two weeks for it to be fully funded and less than a year in business, they opened their cafe in 2017.
Over the years, they continued to grow their online presence supported by fun, creative branding. With their e-commerce growing and exceeding their expectations, they made the challenging decision to close the marshmallow cafe at the end of 2024 and focus on wholesale including expanding their presence in airports.
XO Marshmallow made its way to O’Hare after being contacted by the URW Airports team who became aware of them via social media and knew it was a product that would do well at O’Hare. Bringing local entrepreneurs offering locally-made products into airports is a top priority for URW Airports.
“XO Marshmallow offers everything we are looking for in a local company from the popularity of their products to its strong social media following,” said Elizabeth Bobak, URW Airports Director of Marketing, ORD. “Connecting local product makers with our concessions operators is just one way we support local businesses. We are excited to offer these opportunities and welcome Kat and Lindzi to O’Hare while offering support as they navigate the airport environment.”
XO Marshmallow can be found at Evolve in O’Hare’s Terminal 5, Sara’s Candy in Midway airports, and 350 small stores nationwide. Products include some of their favorite marshmallow flavors such as Cotton Candy and OMG (OMG (aka Ooey Marshmallow Goodness), their version of marshmallow creme.
“We are so grateful URW Airports came to us with the opportunity to be in O’Hare International Airport,” Connor said. “As a local Chicagoan, it is a full circle moment for our products to be at O’Hare. We have always been interested in airports which makes this such a pivotal moment for our small business.”
Being in the airport allows them to establish their company as a global brand and gives them the chance to interact with the traveling public. Their strong social media following led to many tourists seeking out their cafe to buy their product. Now their presence in the airport allows them to still interact with even more international passengers.
“Having an opportunity to interact with people while they buy our product at the airport is a very cool experience as a business owner,” Shanks said. “Seeing our product be successful at O’Hare has been the highlight of this entire experience. We can’t wait to see what’s to come.”
