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pile of stuff at the bottom of the stairs and then carrying it up when you have a complete load, rather than making numerous hikes up and down. It occurred to me that Costco is a perfect laboratory to test
this hypothesis. Our local Costco, in an area of Culver City, CA, near Venice and Marina Del Rey, is among the top 10 grossing stores in the chain. It’s always busy, and if you don’t get there when the store opens, its parking lot is always full. Although I find going to Costco is fun, just to look at all the
“stuff” and revel at the quality of the meat and variety of wine, there is no way in hell I’m going to fight that parking lot simply to wander as I would at the mall. Hence, R and I have a list, and when we discover items we
need that would be a good“Costco buy” rather than buying it at the“store” (toilet paper and vitamins, for instance),we put them on the list.When the list is of a certain length, we get up early on Saturday, drive to the store, stake out a parking spot, and get in line with the 300 or so others jockeying shopping carts, waiting for the big red doors to roll up. Our behavior has been altered by the lack of parking; Cost-
co’s sales haven’
t.They have limited parking, but it doesn’t seem to hurt business. And we smart shoppers still buy the same amount we always would. However, dare we say it, the parking, or lack of it, has caused us to think more clearly about how we go about shopping.
PT BLOG Is this a horrific problem for our industry? Less parking
means less need for parking services, right? I think
not.Actually the need is in reverse. Costco doesn’t have any controlled parking. It’s
chaos.They
need amanager for parking. It would be great if there was a sign telling you how many spaces were available (technology). Some Costcos (in Mexico, for instance) charge for parking for non- customers to prevent poaching. I have no clue how many spaces are poached at our local Costco, but I bet it’s more than a few. How about parking reservations for peak times? I also know that at least 100 of those spaces are taken by
employees, by design.Well, if Costco wanted, they could find parking for their employees nearby and bus them in. All of these activities take management, technology – you
know, parking planning and services. Fewer parking spaces mean more work for the parking industry.
JVH You could have read these entries when they were originally
posted at Parking Today’s Blog – and commented, if you liked – by logging on to
www.parkingtoday.com and clicking on “blog.” JVH updates the blog almost every day.
PT
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OCTOBER 2009 • PARKING TODAY •
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