Paying to park at Westfield!

[Lily Rainbow]

Hi all,

Interested to hear peoples views of paying to park?You can shop for 3 hours for free,and after that you gotta pay!I don't think I've ever spend more than 3 hours shopping at any one time,so this would'nt affect me.Reading the article,one of the shoppers said they spend 6 hrs shopping????Seriously?lol Here's the article...

 

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/paid-parking-begins-at-westfield-shopping-centre-at-west-lakes/story-fnii5yv4-1226747865100

[scooterdan]

If they can spend 6 hours shopping they can obviously afford to pay for parking!!

[Blossom]

Three hours for free would be fine with me. I'm guessing they'd have ticket validating machines if you were at the cinema or something?

[McGintyoz]

It is nice to be able to shop and not have to pay for parking. Prices may be reasonable now but no doubt they will start creeping up like they did in the UK. It is nice to be able to wander around the shops and stop for a coffee etc and not be thinking I have to get back to my car before 3 hours!

[Guest ColinOz]

Maybe you can go out at the 2 and a half hour mark and enter again just to reset the clock

[Anne B]

It's amazing how some people have reacted to this. Our retired neighbours quite indignantly say they won't go there now and will shop elsewhere, also my mother-in-law won't go there (she can't cope with any kind of technology like petrol pumps/mobile phones/dvd players) - so there is no way she would go through the gates! It just highlights what sheltered lives are lived by a lot of people from Adelaide, and how resistant they are to change. Also a big proportion of West Lakes customers are elderly (my son calls it the West Lakes Old Peoples Mall) so they may lose a lot of customers. Three hours seems perfectly adequate for normal shopping anyway, I am not sure if you get a rebate if you go to the cinema or not. In England the supermarkets used refund the amount you had spent on car parking in the council car park. In the longer term there is no guarantee that they won't increase charges or decrease the free period, otherwise why did they bother spending all that money on the barriers and ticket machines?

[Keith & Linda]

Maybe you can go out at the 2 and a half hour mark and enter again just to reset the clock

 

The Westfields that have pay to park in Brisbane take a photo of your number plate, but I do not know if it records/checks onto a data base. I know it is easier to park now as it has stopped all the commuters using them as a park and ride.

Surely 3 hours is enough for coffee and shopping!!! When men go to the hardware we get told, 'don't take forever just get what you need and straight out, no looking around' so the same can surely apply to Westfield shoppers!!! must admit though that hardware stores do not cater for window shoppers, which is a more of a hobby for some folk.

[Guest Guest75]

Isn't it 4 hours at Westfield Marion?

 

4 hours is ample indeed and as Keef says it will stop the park and riders.

[Guest shella_n]

I can easily do 6 hours at Marion when on a day out we my daughter, we do some shopping, have a coffee, some more shopping, lunch and then a movie - we have great mummy and daughter days there - very dissapointed by the parking thing - no doubt it been put in place not to actually penalise shoppers but to deter non shoppers from parking there

[Guest Guest75]

I can easily do 6 hours at Marion when on a day out we my daughter, we do some shopping, have a coffee, some more shopping, lunch and then a movie - we have great mummy and daughter days there - very dissapointed by the parking thing - no doubt it been put in place not to actually penalise shoppers but to deter non shoppers from parking there

 

I did know someone who lived nearby to the Maron Westfield and he always had overflow parkers on his street.

 

As fo 6 hours................. I am an SAS style shopper.......................in and out before they know!

[Keith & Linda]

I can easily do 6 hours at Marion when on a day out we my daughter, we do some shopping, have a coffee, some more shopping, lunch and then a movie - we have great mummy and daughter days there - very dissapointed by the parking thing - no doubt it been put in place not to actually penalise shoppers but to deter non shoppers from parking there

 

If it is a "day out" then the costs, like on any other day out will have to be factored in, and if you are happy with the costs then you do it, if not plan a day out elsewhere. But gee, a day out at Westfield does not even show up on my radar, but then I am not retired yet or a true Aussie!!!!! When we first arrived here we could not believe how big a night out it was on late night shopping day.

[ails]

I was at West Lakes yesterday. Had a coffee on the run and then had a muse around the new section that had opened. Shopped and bought a few gifts for Christmas (I know.... but the offers were VERY good) and then was rushing to get finished before the mall closed at five. We spent about four hours there and had the mall been open longer, it would have been more. Didn't even do any food shopping, had no lunch or sit down at all. We did not have to pay because I think it is free for a while - but ... how to pay. where to pay, what to pay and what to do in general if you go over 3 hours was very unclear ...

 

Not great in my opinion - four hours would be better - I bet the businesses in the food hall will suffer hugely because of this ...

Ails

[AussieRob]

To me it's all about supply and demand. I really didn't think West Lakes filled up it's car parks as it was, so to possibly put off some shoppers sounds criminal to me.

 

On the other hand if it was at Marion, I would endorse it. That car park is far to small, and I think most Saturday's you struggle to park, I've left there before now when it's to busy, so if you could get rid of window shoppers and some kids filling up their Saturday's at the shops then it would be a good idea.

 

We do our shopping at Derronades.... It's always empty.

[Lily Rainbow]

I was just thinking too,don't alot of folk head for the mall's in summer to get out of the heat and save using their own air con's?I personally dislike shopping,always have so,3 hours would be ample for me actually.Its only a matter of time before all Westfields have these parking charges.I can recall when TTP in Modbury opened (We lived near there)and wow for years they have had free parking.Its opposite Modbury Hossie though, and I think alot of people would park in the TTP carpark to avoid the hossie car parking charges!Do they charge at TTP yet? Diane you'd know right?

Edited October 29, 2013 by Lily Rainbow

[NicF]

No parking charges at Tea Tree Plaza yet. And usually no problems finding a park there either.

 

I'm another one that can easily spend more than 3 hours shopping. I don't go clothes shopping very often, maybe once a year or so (been once since July last year), so when I do go I usually need several items of clothing and have to spend hours going round all the shops trying stuff on before I find everything I need. It's not a day out it's a necessity and I don't have time to go on weekends or during the week without taking a day off. I'd rather not spend the day trying to find clothes to fit that I like but experience tells me shopping online can involve too much in the way of clothes that don't fit.

[Diane]

Diane you'd know right?

 

Shopping of any kind is my idea of hell, so I rarely spend longer than an hour or so if I have to go to TTP.. No, they don't charge (yet) - Westlakes is probably a testout to see if they get away with it, although they do police the time limits in the bit of the carpark that's near the O-Bahn stop to stop commuters using it as a free car park. I think Modbury Hospital now pay to park there, so that's probably filling up the places nearer to the crossing between TTP and the hospital. My friend and I were just saying the other day how businesses in Australia get away with charging for stuff that would cause an outcry in the UK. Banks for instance charging for a "paying in book" to put your money into an account with them ($5!), and tickets for all sorts of events having all sorts of hidden charges - heard today of one company that was charging $10 admin fee for the privilege of you printing out your own ticket, on your own printer, using your own ink!

[adelaidenow]

Interestingly on the radio today (ABC 891) they were talking about this and said it was an issue to Marion shoppers as it was catchment to many lower socioeconomic suburbs.

 

I thought it was a more wealthy area?

[Guest Guest75]

 

We do our shopping at Derronades.... It's always empty.

 

It's that quiet in "Killingfields" they should pay you to park!

[Rabeah]

3 hours are enough time, for these boring Westfield Shopping Centres! I've never spent more than 2 hours in any of them here in Adelaide (in Sydney in Westfield's Miranda with much more shops I could even spend more than 6 hours due to the size).

Marion is quite okay, but in comparison to European ones they are all boring! For males it is good, electronics, computers, cameras etc. But why have all these private health insurances to deal in a shopping mall!?

Mostly these cheap fashion crap and have you guys ever noticed that plastic odour, especially from the shoe shops (all made in China)?

Hubby and me made jokes that on a Chinese Market people would find better quality and they sell it here in Westfield for heaps of money.

I prefer online shopping and going to Harbour Town, anyway, because I think Australian management believes people are stupid and I have to admit I was outraged when I saw the absence of quality they offer their customers dearly (besides Myers and some nice shops).

I'm also convinced that the 3 hours and the amount of money in West Lakes are only a testing ground in order to squeeze more in the near future.

[Lily Rainbow]

Shopping of any kind is my idea of hell, so I rarely spend longer than an hour or so if I have to go to TTP.. No, they don't charge (yet) - Westlakes is probably a testout to see if they get away with it, although they do police the time limits in the bit of the carpark that's near the O-Bahn stop to stop commuters using it as a free car park. I think Modbury Hospital now pay to park there, so that's probably filling up the places nearer to the crossing between TTP and the hospital. My friend and I were just saying the other day how businesses in Australia get away with charging for stuff that would cause an outcry in the UK. Banks for instance charging for a "paying in book" to put your money into an account with them ($5!), and tickets for all sorts of events having all sorts of hidden charges - heard today of one company that was charging $10 admin fee for the privilege of you printing out your own ticket, on your own printer, using your own ink!

Thats ridiculous Diane!We were looking at flights last week,and some airlines are now charging you to "sit together"Who would'nt want to sit together?I guess the only bonus is,if you were travelling alone?Then you'd save!lol Do all banks charge $5 for a paying in book?

[jim and adel]

For males it is good, electronics, computers, cameras etc.

 

I didn't know these were male-only items! That's a side issue, though. The point I disagree with is that for such things the choice is 'good'. Not in my experience of Westfield shopping centres - electronic stuff is typically very limited and usually not the latest models.

 

Regarding paying for parking. I reckon three hours is fair. For some it won't be long enough but if that's the case then paying to park on the 'day out' (shudder!) still seems fair to me. For most shoppers most of the time, three hours seems ample.