Technology is being used to help solve a lot of the irritations of daily life — finding a ride to the airport or not wanting to leave home to get groceries.
Now it's also being tapped to help people find the best parking spot at the mall.
Ridgedale Center is part of a pilot program that helps shoppers glean how busy the parking lots around it are at any given time to save them from having to drive around the whole mall. It also provides tips on where to park to be closest to the store they want to visit.
The mall's owner, General Growth Properties (GGP), rolled out the parking tool to its smartphone app late last week. The app — leveraging historical and real-time data provided by Seattle-based Inrix — shows users heat maps enabled by GPS data. It doesn't provide specific information on individual open spaces, but offers a more general snapshot.
When users open the GGP app, users select the mall they want to visit and tap on parking. They then are taken to a map of the mall with the parking lots around it showing up as green, yellow or red depending on how full they are. On Tuesday morning, all of the spots around Ridgedale were green. GGP executives note that the tool will be most useful during big shopping events.
"Mall traffic continues to rise, and during peak shopping seasons, such as holiday and back-to-school, parking continues to be one of the largest pain points," Scott Morey, GGP's executive vice president of technology and marketing, said in a statement.
App users can also type in the store they want to visit and will be given recommendations of where to park to be closest to the store.
For example, if you type in the Gap at Ridgedale, the app tells you it's on the first floor and it's best to park near Macy's.
In addition to Ridgedale, the parking tool is being tested at three other GGP malls around the country: Oakbrook Center in suburban Chicago, Alderwood Mall in Seattle and Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco. If consumers find it useful, the company plans to bring the service to more of its malls later this year.
Valet parking is another service that some malls have been rolling out to help reduce parking frustrations at a time when malls are fighting to keep shoppers from fleeing to online shopping.
Last fall, the Mall of America launched a valet service where shoppers can drop off their car at one of three points around the mall and claim it at any of those locations closest to where they finish their shopping trip. The service is aimed in part at saving people from having to schlep back across the mall to pick up their car.
Kavita Kumar • 612-673-4113
