Main Street merchants urged to park elsewhere
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Assuming a steady purchasing rate occurring daily Monday through Friday, Wilson says if customers who shop Main Street stores purchase just one $5 item every 30 minutes, that could potentially translate to sales of $10 an hour, $80 per day and $400 per week, which could potentially lead to sales of almost $21,000 per year.
But if customers are steered away due to convenience issues, those sales could be lost, he said after being informed such practices are taking place.
“Sales are important to businesses and to the city in general, so any time you can have those parking spaces for customers to use, the better off you are,” he said. “If an employee or store owner of a business is parking in front of their stores for convenience, they may not realize the amount of money that is being lost because that space is not able to be used by customers.”
Many private businesses prohibit employees from parking in front of their buildings, but the parking stalls downtown are considered public property. Due to downtown construction, Wilson added, a police presence to enforce time limits on parking spaces is not likely to resume until Court Square reopens.
Until then, business advocates are forced to issue gentle reminders to merchants and hope to encourage them to use public parking lots located north and south of Main Street.
Wilson said some have wondered out loud about the practice of using customer spaces.
“People have mentioned it to us before and asked, ‘Why are employees parking out there instead of parking in the long-term perking lots? Do they not know it hurts our business when they do that?'”