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Parking charges led to sales boost - BurJuman chief
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Wednesday, 1 July 2009Posted on Thursday, 23 July 2009
Parking Fees@Burjuman
Posted by John at 17:24 UAE time
Viola! The days of user fees have arrive; the free-rider's tenure is over. Unfortunately, it is the wrong time to ask for salary increase to fund shopping mall parking charges. The answer: the metro or the public bus to your neighbhood mall. Hopefully, if more people would use the public transport, Dubai will be a much better place for all...less traffic congestion, less pollution from cars etc
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Posted on Monday, 6 July 2009
I agree with paid parking in Burjuman...to an extent
Posted by Scott at 15:49 UAE time
I agree that paid parking had to be implemented in Burjuman, but I disagree with the times and prices. If you are in the mall for morethan 10minutes, you are charged for parking. This is ridiculous.
I went to buy a birthday card at Burjuman. Parked, bought my card and left in 35 minutes and was charged when I left AED 10!!! DIFC doesn't charge under 1 hour and this is just a scam for payments at such a short interval... I have NOT been to Burjuman since, that was 6 months ago. Before I would go for lunch to Carino's, Noodle House, Japengo, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Now I will not. I'll go to Oasis Centre, Dubai Marina Mall or Ibn Battuta Mall. I don't see how people can cheat the system at the 1 hour mark for free time, and it works pretty well in DIFC. Actually, I only have to buy a coffee at Caribou Coffee to get free parking in DIFC, then I can walk around and browse. AED 100 is too much for a single person to go and browse, and charging AED 10 for a 30 minute trip, when I spend AED 36 on a card is a complete rip-off.
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Posted on Thursday, 2 July 2009
Retail therapy, anyone?
Posted by Cash Flow Messiah at 16:37 UAE time
If it was only for 'genuine shoppers' aka people who visit a mall with something specific to purchase in mind, then there wouldnt be the concept of the typical dubai malls. Ever wonder why malls host cinemas within? Its exposing shopping/shops/merchandise to potential buyers during times when they are not looking to buy anything specific. It helps to encourage higher footfall, regardless of a present intent to spend.
Agreed, Burjuman had no choice but to introduce the redeemable parking charge due to overcrowding of the parking lot by office-goers. But this concept cannot apply as a practical approach with an objective purely to boost sales; that simply doesnt make any sense. It it did then Dubai Mall should as well apply it. Besides, assuming that the Burjuman exec is being truthful about the increase in sales, it could well be on account of an other factor/s that they havent considered; it happens all the time. Just because 2 things (introducing the parking fee & boost in sales) occur at the same time (co-related) does not mean that one is causal of the other.
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There goes your business
Posted by HS at 14:06 UAE time
That does not make sense at all. I have to pay so you can allow me to buy???? Not that I ever go to Burjuman (since they do not have anything that isn't available anywhere else) but now I definitely will never consider going. Burjuman should feel privileged that it was chosen over Dubai Mall or MOE, and not make people pay for it. It is not like it is an extraordinary mall that is modern and away from traffic! Dubai mall, MOE, IBM and Festival City offer a much more welcoming and entertaining shopping experience.
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Burjaman Sales Up!
Posted by Andy at 13:52 UAE time
Congratulations on Burjaman's sales going up. I am however very very surprised. Everytime (and I mean everytime) I go there, (which is admitedly much less since they started the parking fees) the place is desolate. Hardly a soul to be seen. It does however seem to be busier after midday - I wonder why! If you were to walk into a shop the assistants come running as there are so few customers - especially electronics shops!
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Of course
Posted by gamby at 09:58 UAE time
A comment from a Burjuman chief???!!! What do you expect??? Of course they will say it's effective otherwise they will be laughed at. But before the parking fee implementation I always go to Burjuman and without any plan of buying, yet ended up buying something. But now that there's a pressure of paying a parking fee I never go there for more than a year.I bet that it's not just me, right? If you are going there for lunch paying a 30Dhs and an additional 10Dhs for parking, will you go there?? Sales boost??!!!! Read the last paragraph..!!!! Good luck to the Burjuman management. I think a 4 hrs leeway is fair enough.
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if it is going to affect the mall shoppers, the fee should be there...
Posted by TJ at 04:28 UAE time
I feel there should be a parking charge if it will affect those who are there to use the mall.
When I used to drop my husband off at work and then drive up to Al Ghurair Centre to go to Spinneys, even though only the upper parking lots are open that early, between 7:30am-8am when I would get there the parking levels that are open would be full and/or I would always end up parking really far away (now, I don't care if I end up parking far away because the mall itself is busy... but Spinneys is the only thing open that early in the morning!)
It is very frustrating when I am there to spend money in a shop in Al Ghurair and most of the people are using the parking lot to park their cars and then go to work.
I would feel better at least knowing these people have to pay for parking there. I automatically would spend at least 100-200dhs in Spinneys so I should have no problem having the parking fees waived for me.
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Posted on Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Mall fees saga
Posted by shoppaholic at 20:43 UAE time
I really don't get it...why every marketing dump keeps talking about getting rid of the casual buyer in the mall....or filtering people to attract only the "genuine" buyer to the mall !!!!
People, wake up and smell the roses. In this part of the world, there is nothing to do but to frequent the malls. You will eventually buy, eat, play..etc There are many ways to get everyone to spend....but please, don't start charging for malls..this is ridiculous... I will personaly not go to the malls that charges parking fees. I have stopped going to Burjuman since the introduction of the fees...mind you I am a big spender as well, but I like the luxury of not worring about the timing in my ticket.
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Parking - Seems like a Never Ending Problem in Dubai
Posted by Prayag at 19:24 UAE time
I felt compelled to comment 'cause it does seem like yet again a small number of people are drawing up decisions based on short term gains.
And even worse, I guess some of them might be putting up incorrect information (read lieing) to make things look different. (Last time when I checked Burjuman parking charges they were higher than mentioned here).
One of the comments, by SK, provides a somewhat good proposal of what should be considered by Mall folks to save things on both ends. But I won't hold my breath on that one 'cause good suggestions seem to find very few listeners out here.
Coming back to my own experience in Burjuman. I used to frequent the place, have done lot of different purchases (at least 20 different instances in each case individual purchases ranging from minimum AED 250 (fancy Pens) to as much as AED 8000 (Nikon Kit)).
In my observation Electronics stores in this mall are not so frequented as most others are, so finding a particular item in stock here is more likely than most others. I bought two Sony HD Handycam from here, which I couldn't source somewhere else at the same time (including main Jumbo store). So when I had to accompany a colleague to help him pick the latest and greatest of that same thing, we planned for a trip to Burjuman, which would also include Lunch in the Food Court afterwards. When we arrived there, we found there was a parking fee of DH:20 per hr. But we still went in 'cause we were sure to make a purchase large enough to get a waiver. But this time, Jumbo store there had the Handycam we wanted, but didn't have the accessories we wanted and my colleague didn't want to buy it in two places etc. So we came down rushing 'cause we were beyond the 1 hr mark while looking into that Handycam thingy. Finally ended up paying AED:40 for parking 'cause we were 5 minutes longer than 1 hr mark. Left the mall and never went back there EVER again.
It's a long post, but I wanted to share the entire story, so that some perspective can be drawn from what happens with a simplistic view of a complex problem.
For people who want to drive away those window shoppers, I guess they've kind of lost the plot. In case window shopping was not important there would be no need for malls, we could live with smaller individual stores or large super markets where people know their shopping list and just pick that stuff from Shelf.
Malls were created to bring people into a shopping area where they might find something more than what they came to do there and finally buy stuff they came across while window shopping.
Looking at the other end of Parking mess; me and my friends we frequent IBN BATUTA even though it's so far away + there's so little to actually shop there, 'cause it's probably easiest to get parking there. In case they started charging for those parking I'm sure we won'e be visiting them as often anymore !!
Finally, for those marketing gurus on the audience and rest of the mortals, I guess one could learn from the Walmart Story; having enormous free parking space made them one of the successful retail chain in the world. They made lot of business 'cause people came there without having to worry about space + parking charges. (I understand that Retail chain and Malls don't operate the same way, but still wanted to mention it here 'cause of the importance Walmart success story gives to parking space alone)
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UK malls only charge for cars parked for more than say 4hrs...
Posted by biztrip at 17:59 UAE time
When a mall in the UK is experiencing the same problem (overspill from offices or train stations) they usually charge for cars parked over 4hrs per day (circa 100dirhams). So as to avoid a genuine shopper from being charged (because they have stayed in the mall for over 4hrs) they can have their parking ticket validated at any outlet where they spend X amount. This system acts as a very good deterrent as commuters can not leave their offices half way through the working day, jump back on the train and move their car.
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Mall parking Fee
Posted by Madame Bovary at 17:45 UAE time
I will just stop going to MOE or IBM where I am a regular. Some days I just go for strolling , end up spending over 500dhs. Some days I go for shopping, can't find the right thing, no spending at all. Perhaps this will put a stop on my unplanned shopping and spending too.
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charge card
Posted by jackfruit at 16:58 UAE time
if all the malls charged a fee then there would be no option but to pay for it. You an either choose to drive to the mall and park there or park outside where the RTA fees are Dh1-2/hr (if you don't mind your car getting heated up, or walking across the street to save that Dhs 10/-. Initially I was upset about this whole parking fee thing. But then once you see that the whole system is put in place so that the genuine people who want to shop at that mall gets parking space then it all makes sense.
Why are we all cribing about this whole parking issue. If you can afford a car, can pay for the fuel, can pay for its maintenance, can pay Salik, can pay insurance, can pay RTA parking fees, then why is this fee which can be reimbursed easily such a big problem for us. I guess its because we feel that we are not being wanted. But that is not true. If we are genuine shoppers we ARE WANTED. it is all being done in our favour. Excpet that the management does not want their huge parkings spaces to be misused. I think it is fair. If someone wants to go to Burjuman for an afternoon coffee then I am afraid the venue needs to be paid for, or choose some other coffee shop, there are hundreds of them. But the mall has the right to do whatever they want with their parking space to lure the genuine customers.
The genuine customer doesn't mind. Malls in Dubai are not only for shopping. So what's new. But now the number of cars are getting unmanageable and the malls need to do what they think is right.
I am not in favour of the parking fee in malls, but I am not against it either. If people do not have enough parking around their office or residence its not the mall's problem.
I wonder how the malls with Cinemas are going to handle the issue. The movie tkt costs Dhs30 and the car is parked for 3 hrs.? I am sure they will think of something.
I wonder if there was a better way to handle this issue though. Like for example, if I am a regular at BurJuman then I must feel privileged, so what I did not buy this time, I do most of the times. Shopping is so subjective, you can't decide that you will buy something for sure without having seen the item, and tried it on (isn't that why shops have trial rooms?) but if I have an monthly average or a quarterly average, (like in bank A/Cs) then I could get a temp parking card/sticker which is valid for a month or 3 months depending on the amount, that way the mall gets what they want - loyal customers without losing potential new ones, and keep away the non-shoppers, or give him a second chance by giving him the option to redeem his parking fee if he shops there within that month. This may sound complicated but can be made simple I guess. Like how we collect Air Miles and keep adding them on a card.
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yes yes
Posted by James at 15:51 UAE time
Of couse it was a big success. Thats why they then had to halve the rates from 20dhm an hour to 10dhm, because too many people wanted to give them this money... or not.
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Mall Parking Fees.
Posted by Glen at 15:37 UAE time
Its the best thing that Bur Juman mall has done. I went sometime ago to buy a high end branded item which the dealer did not have in stock so there was no validation of my ticket and the parking fee had to be paid.
The good news is I have never returned nor ever will as we managed to get the item in the UK cheaper.
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Parking charges by Bur Juman and other Mall
Posted by Ashraf Kasmani at 15:34 UAE time
What so ever be the situation, parking for a mall visitor should be free. Every mall in the emirates do good business, polls are evidence for this, for info: MOE is an example to do largest sales for the year. Mall owners do not simply build these huge properties without feasibility studies and proper vision on revenue. I request Mall owners to be kind enough to look at those beautiful moments of joy every individual and family shares whilst their visit - no matter even if its window shopping. There are customers who go for shopping and only shopping. Let other enjoy just visiting the mall. If you are calculating an average of Aed 100/- to be spend to wave off parking fee, you should see the other way that shoppers don't shop only for AED 100/-, there are shoppers who visit and shop for an average AED 500/- or so. During Dubai Festival seasons, an average individual spending is AED 3000/- for the year 2007 (I am not too sure on the year but it is 2006 or 2005 if not 2007, which I read in the newspapers and polls results) similarly individual spending during visit to malls has to be a figure near or more to this range. Implenting charge with one hour free and and 1+3 free and so is not the only remedy for the problem. My request is once again to drop the idea of putting parking fee in malls.
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