Business counters parking fees

A Wellington retailer has taken matters into her own hands to win back customers seemingly put off by the introduction of weekend parking fees.

Mary Self, owner of Nancy’s Stitch Studio on Thorndon Quay, has started reimbursing customers their first hour’s parking if they spend $20 or more at the store.

Wellington City Council removed free weekend parking from September 8, with Thorndon Quay parks now costing $2.50 an hour. The weekday rate is $3.

Self said she noticed a 40 per cent decrease in sales on the day the change came into effect compared with the previous Saturday, and a 20 per cent decrease the next two Saturdays after that.

She decided the only way to win customers back was to remove the parking cost barrier.

‘‘I thought I could sit and moan, or I could do something positive. I think it’s a psychological thing – people think, ‘I’m not going to go in if I’m going to have to pay’.’’

Transactions were also down compared with the same weekends for the past two years, Self said.

There was a 42 per cent drop on the first Saturday the fees were introduced, and a 32 per cent decrease the following week.

The results were modest but improved when Self introduced her loyalty scheme on September 29, with sales down just 10 per cent compared with the last Saturday of free parking.

But Self hopes sales will pick up again when word spreads. She has shared the scheme on Instagram, Facebook, and on parking meters.

Meanwhile, Wellington City councillor Simon Woolf, who voted against the weekend fees, said that he had been contacted by Harbourside Market stallholders worried that their businesses had taken a hit in recent weeks.

Woolf was approached by about six vendors while visiting the weekly Sunday market, near Te Papa, two weeks after parking fees were introduced.

‘‘I was there with my family. I’ve never seen it so empty.’’

The parking fees were a double blow for some businesses because their rents had also recently been put up, he said.

However, market manager Fraser Ebbett said he had not noticed any difference in recent weeks, nor had he been made aware of any businesses that were struggling.

‘‘I thought I could sit and moan, or I could do something positive.’’ Mary Self, of Wellington store Nancy’s Stitch Studio