Quote:
Originally Posted by FishFry1984
I think all malls in heart of a "downtown city" charge to park. At least where I come from and doesn't kill any business.
This is a super difficult question to answer.
It's not simple at all to estimate what effect these things have. In some places, there are unique things that make demand inelastic - like if every parking space around the Empire State Building cost $100, you're not going to go find a different Empire State Building. In other places, like a suburban Target, if you tried to charge that same amount you'd have a pretty empty parking lot.
Sure, you can say charging for parking doesn't COMPLETELY kill business. But maybe business would be better if you didn't charge for parking. And the most complex scenario: maybe business would be better, but you're actually making more money from parking than you lose in business!
Retail adds another level of complexity. Retail is in a long term decline, if you charge for parking but only lose as much business as people who don't charge for parking, you win. If you lose B&M business but people just order your product off the website anyway, you win.
It's way too simplistic to either say "well look at X, it worked there" or "well look at Y, it failed there."