At the Alewife T station the other day, I noticed that the MBTA has found another way to market us to our corporate masters. They’ve allowed Best Buy to add a Best Buy Express kiosk at the station (there’s also one at Forest Hills).
That means that if you’re riding public transit around the city and you need an iPod or a video camera RIGHT NOW!, you can get one. Of course, it’s useless until you charge it so instant access isn’t terribly useful, but whatever.
The sad thing is that Best Buy isn’t paying for the privilege. Instead, the MBTA gets 7% of the gross profits, if any. C’mon, guys. If you’re going to sell off our public spaces, you should at least make sure we get something for it.
The kiosk at Alewife has been boarded over for a while now.