The
introduction of a free first hour/ $5 second hour car parking fee structure at
QVM seems to have worked with reports that customer churn figures show
significant improvement. Trader observations over Easter certainly seemed to
confirm that. But attracting more customers has its price with a significant
reduction in car park income that could impact on market services in the
future.
It
doesn't take Einstein to realise that a $12 fee for 2 hours parking changing to
a $5 fee for the same period (or even less if customers leave within the first
hour) is going to reduce income by many thousands of dollars. Add in the fact
that more people are sticking to the 2 hour limit, and the impact is
significant.
We
can argue about the appropriateness of charging parking fees in the first place,
particularly given the fact that suburban shopping centres are largely fee free
(although that is changing). Of course we are not a shopping centre (sorry, had
to throw that in) and we do co-exist with some exorbitant CBD parking rates.
The fees charged at QVM are part of revenue used to pay for things like
improvements to facilities and marketing. In fact one of our traders suggested
this week that QVM should be promoting the car park "fee" as a protection for future generations. You know the sort of thing "Your car parking fee goes to improving our market."
You
can put this discussion under the category of "What have they ever done
for us?" Well, in this case, management action has put more customers in
our car park. It comes at a cost, but Traders will welcome any boost to customer
flow and making QVM a more attractive shopping destination.