It is a bit by design.

The longer time you spend there the more $$ you leave there: shops pays a huge rent, and I have no doubt one statistic Airport use to raise rents is the average time we spend inside the airport (by the number of passengers, of course).

Security, and supposed security, is part of it.

It’s even worse, airlines removed the automated walkways in the terminals to increase foot traffic to stores.

https://www.themirror.com/travel/american-airlines-removes-m...