So exactly what was so wrong with having cashiers at the exits in parking lots? It's getting so every mall I go to these days has a little recording on the way in that tells you that there are no cashiers at the exits and that if you have to pay, you have to pay at some machine before you return to your car. This is annoying enough in lots where you don't always have to pay — say, at the Westfield in Century City where the first two hours are free. But yesterday, I was at the new Beverly Connection on La Cienega and it's at least a dollar to get out, no matter what you bought or how short a time you stayed there. So if I go there, I have to deal with their silly vending-type devices.
I don't get how this can save them a lot of money. It's not like those people in the booths were drawing down CEO salaries, after all. By eliminating those employees, the lot incurs the cost of the equipment and the ongoing upkeep on it all. And in every lot I've visited that has gone to this system, there seem to be dozens of employees hovering around, making sure the machines work and teaching people how to use them and dealing with the inevitable confusions and system failures. Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to put back the booths and stick those people in them?
At the Beverly Connection, before you return to your auto, you stop off at a kiosk and put in a dollar to get your exit ticket validated. A little voice informs you that you have twenty minutes to use the exit ticket.
Question: What happens if on my way to my car, I suddenly think of something else I'd like to go buy? Or what happens if I run into a friend and we get to talking or if I can't find my vehicle and it's twenty-one minutes before I get to the exit? Or if I lose my ticket? Or if, as happened to me twice in parking lots before Christmas, I drive around the lot for ten minutes, fail to find an empty space and decide to leave? I can think of a dozen other problematic scenarios, none of which occur if there's a human being I can talk to and pay on the way out.
Yesterday also, I was in a manned parking lot where the first hour was free. I was driving for the exit at 58 minutes after my entry time…but there was a traffic jam at the gate and I had to sit there for four or five minutes while the lady in the booth argued with some driver. When I finally got up to her, it was more than an hour after I'd entered but she waved me on through because she knew it wasn't my fault. A machine can't do that.
Like I said, I don't get how this can result in huge savings. I can see how it generates ill will and maybe a desire to not visit that parking lot if you can help it. But can this really be worth the potential ill will involved?