Parking charges led to sales boost - BurJuman chief

PARKING CHARGES: BurJuman, the only shopping mall in Dubai already charging for parking, says it saw an uplift in sales when they launched the initiative in 2008. (Getty Images)

The introduction of parking fees at BurJuman increased sales for retailers, the head of the Bur Dubai-based mall said on Wednesday, as more shopping centres mull charging shoppers ahead of the Dubai Metro’s launch.

The mall introduced parking fees on June 2 last year due to the vast number of office workers from Bur Dubai’s Bank Street that were using it.

Contrary to what some retailers may have feared, the move sparked a slight uptick in sales as housewives and other daytime shoppers had better access to parking.

“We ended up not having enough parking space for our shoppers during the daytime. If you came to the mall at 10:30 in the morning, the parking was full,” BurJuman’s managing director Eisa Adam said.

“I don’t blame them. It’s covered parking, it’s available and it’s very safe. The problem started when we started to receive complaints from some of the visitors and some of the retailers who said there was not enough parking in the mall during the daytime.”

The centre now charges visitors AED10 ($2.70) per hour for parking on weekdays between 6am and 6pm, but the fee is refunded if shoppers spend more than AED100.

There is no charge between midday and 2.30pm to ensure that lunch customers spending less than AED100 aren’t deterred from using its food court.

“Our basic reason is to make the parking available to our regular shoppers and any customer visiting a mall like BurJuman would absolutely spend a minimum of AED100,” Adam said.

Parking fees are not a major source of income for the mall since most visitors spend more than that amount, he added.
Shop owners can also request free parking for some of its best customers.

On Sunday, Arabian Business reported that a number of shopping malls in Dubai, including Mall of the Emirates and Ibn Battuta, are mulling parking fees to prevent commuters from leaving their cars at their metro stations.

Adam said he believes those shopping centres are now facing a problem similar to the one BurJuman has had on Bank Street, but that it could extend to evenings and weekends as well due to the large residential areas surrounding them.

“There are huge communities beside them. The introduction of the metro is going to make some of those people misuse the parking of the malls,” he said.

Sales at BurJuman continue to be down by an average of around 15-18 percent on the year due to the economic downturn that first hit the mall in October last year.

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