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Comment by _nalply | Hacker News Reader

Not really, it's more the bad execution that killed the goose. Only misers would object to a small fee for parking. It's the hassle of paying that keeps people away.

Where I live all shopping centers in the town have the same fees for parking, CHF 1 for the first hour then CHF ½ for every half hour. You can pay with an app, for example https://easypark.ch, or by cash at a central parking meter by the entrance which accepts credit cards, too, and even returns change.

It's not really a joy but acceptable.

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In a lot (most?) of the US most places are far enough away from each other that using a shop's car park as somewhere to leave your car (e.g. while commuting) does not happen. There is also no viable public transport.

Charging for parking, then, is nonsensical. It's a cost imposed on your business just like the rent.

You could try to recover your rent/land costs by charging a flat fee for people to enter your shop on foot. Why not? Well, because no-one will come any more.

> In a lot (most?) of the US most places are far enough away [...]

I've never seen a grocery store with a parking garage (opposed to a parking lot) that wasn't in a city. If the grocery store has a parking garage instead of a parking lot, then it is almost certainly in an urban area and public transit and is within walking distance of many residences and businesses.

This is in fact the case for the particular Trader Joe's in question. Look up "Trader Joes’s at Hollywood and Vine". That neighborhood is easily walkable, has at least some public transit, and their parking garage is within easy walking distance of numerous other businesses.

Los Altos, CA (pop. 28,976) has a retail district that I assume they tried to keep small and dense, because it’s about five blocks across and the Safeway grocery store is built upstairs from its garage. There’s only one bus route that runs every 45 minutes and stops at 5:30 today. These are surrounded by miles of suburbs. I assume a small number of people walk to it, but a much larger number drive.

Parking garages only make economic sense when the cost of enough land for a parking lot exceeds the cost of making a parking garage, which is almost never true except in urban areas. I'm sure there might be rare exceptions, but the Trader Joe's in question (Trader Joe’s at Hollywood and Vine) is definitely not one of those exceptions.

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