SFGADV Raises Parking Price

Oh, I agree 100%, Gator. People are stupid like that. I can't believe no one saw the JC Penney failure coming a mile away.

I'd bet people are more likely to buy something that's marked $29.99 with $10 off than buy the same item marked regularly at $16.99. In fact, we know this is true to some degree because of the JC Penney thing.

I think I meant the bottom line is all that matters from the park's perspective. They choose to divide it up and present it in the various ways they see fit.

Referring to the JC Penney project, every time I shop at Kohl's I think about this very concept. They really work the savings angle and the Kohl's cash in exchange for spending thing. When I check out and they circle my receipt and tell me, "You saved 5, 326 dollars today," I always look in my bag and think, "Nah, I really didn't."

Carrie, thank God someone else finally noticed the Kohls thing. Every time I'm there, I get mad that I'm paying the prices I am paying and seem to be the only one who has noticed they are NOT cheap. I could go almost anywhere else and pay less for clothing or other goods. I do quite enjoy the Lauren Conrad clothes though. Lol

I'm still trying to figure out where we're getting the gate price of 40 bucks for Great Adventure. If you don't get a ticket online, the gate is now over 60 dollars. THEN parking on top of THAT. THEN the lockers and expensive food and beverage (which I honestly don't mind paying for because it is just like going to a movie but a lot more fun...). I'm sure most people get a season pass or tix online or bring a coke can in, but the base, honest price is much more expensive than your average theme park. Not that I'm saying Great Adventure doesn't have great rides in a quantity that warrants a higher price, but just wondering where the 40 dollars came from for a regular ticket.

I got the price from their website because that's what I have access to.

I kinda figured, but my phone sucks and I have been unable to research a lot of this stuff lately.

You know this kind of baffles me. Here people are complaining about the price of parking verses park value, but when I made the same comment about Michigan's Adventures $10.00 parking charge, people jumped all over me, like I was an insane person. And that the park could charge whatever they wanted, and that $10.00 was more than fair. Which it certainly is not, in the case of MA. Cedar Point yes. MA no!!

Of course $22.00 is just plain nuts! makes me wonder what they are charging the people who go to the preferred parking area. And what does a day at Great Adventure cost? I am certainly not going to spend close to $100.00 on park admission and parking. Or, maybe they are hoping that more people will buy a season parking pass, or season pass, and hope they don't show up every day.

This is what I have been talking about. The parks nickle and diming their guests at every turn, without care of what effect it might have on their business. Once again, I see the season pass holders not thinking that this will be a big deal, while the general park goer gets hit hard in the wallet.

I remember when the parks were talking about how high their newest rollercoasters would be, now I think all their care about is higher profits.

Just wanted to comment about the JC Penney thing. I was just in one in Holland, Michigan the other day. And, I did not see one bit of difference in the store from a year, or any other time. The still have the same lame sales they always have. The buy one get one 50% off sales, and so on. I did not notice any prices coming down at all. Pretty much the same prices on goods as always.

You want a real joke, go an Aeropostale store. The will have polo shirts marked regular priced at $19.99. But, go into the store when they are having a buy one get on free sale, and the same $19.99 shirts are suddenly $38.00 each. I nailed the sales person on the issue, because I purchased one of the shirts a week earlier, and showed her the receipt. I liked the shirt, so since they were buy one get one free, I thought I would get two in different colors. She of course would not budge. I got her manager to sell me both shirts for the same price as the one I purchased the week before.

I worked as a retail cashier for 15 years, so I know all the pricing tricks. But, that's just wrong. I don't think Kohls is any better, as a lot of their discounted stuff is pretty much crap. Or, you can get the exact same stuff a lot cheaper somewhere else. You might find some decent stuff on clearance there, but most of it is stuff nobody wants to wear.

Timber-Rider said:

You know this kind of baffles me. Here people are complaining about the price of parking verses park value, but when I made the same comment about Michigan's Adventures $10.00 parking charge, people jumped all over me, like I was an insane person.

If it makes you feel any better, I think the people complaining about SFGADV's parking are just as wrong.

Lord Gonchar said:

Timber-Rider said:

You know this kind of baffles me. Here people are complaining about the price of parking verses park value, but when I made the same comment about Michigan's Adventures $10.00 parking charge, people jumped all over me, like I was an insane person.

If it makes you feel any better, I think the people complaining about SFGADV's parking are just as wrong.

My complaint is, when I complained about the same subject, I was pretty much made out to be a nutcase. Not the same thing.

Oh.

Don't sweat it. You're not a nutcase, you're just wrong. ;)

For a park of MA's size, $10 is maybe a little high, but definitely reasonable. For SFGADV, $22 is extreme. SFMM is in the LA market, right? Only $15 to park there. What gives?

Timber-Rider, don't compare me to you.

Lord Gonchar said:

I'd bet people are more likely to buy something that's marked $29.99 with $10 off than buy the same item marked regularly at $16.99. In fact, we know this is true to some degree because of the JC Penney thing.

I think I meant the bottom line is all that matters from the park's perspective. They choose to divide it up and present it in the various ways they see fit.

In general, we compel the parks to play the "hide the price" game because of our insistence on wanting to feel like we got a deal. Parks do what's profitable given counterintuitive (and counterproductive) consumer behavior.

Then again, there are always going to be those lone wolves, like SWA and their "BFF campaign" (bags fly free!) or HW and their free parking/drinks/sunscreen/inner tubes/smiles, that thrive by swimming upstream even while "everybody knows which way the current flows"...you CAN win going opposite of the trends, but you need to know how to market your distinctive "value proposition". Clearly, JC Penney wasn't successful in that endeavor.

Timber-Rider said:

I remember when the parks were talking about how high their newest rollercoasters would be, now I think all their care about is higher profits.

No. Businesses have always been focused on profit. You probably didn't notice it when you were younger, but you're starting to take notice now.

In fact, your views in general strike me as coming from someone who is, albeit glacially, coming to grips with the harsh realities that have surrounded you your entire life.

You complain non-stop about customers being "nickle and dimed" at every turn, and how we're on the path to complete social collapse as a result. But the reality is that even as entertainment costs go up, the entertainment industry as a whole is doing just fine, all things considered.

All I know is that I don't get charged for parking at Target or Outback Steakhouse or Best Buy. Why don't people question this BS?

*goes off and starts his own shopping center pay-to-park business*

bjames said:

All I know is that I don't get charged for parking at Target or Outback Steakhouse or Best Buy. Why don't people question this BS?

Yes you do. Owning and maintainting that space costs those businesses money. They make that money in the prices they charge you for the goods they sell.

Nothing is free. Businesses have a total expense cost. They remain successful by making sure the top line is greater than the debit line. The cost of offering that parking is figured into the expenses to run the business.

Besides, having to deal with Best Buy sales associates is payment enough :)

Lord Gonchar said:

maXairMike said:

There are very few major venues I've been to where paying to park day of or even buying online parking (including things like garage passes) gets you any closer than a block or two...

I can't imagine them letting "anyone" park as close as you seem to be saying because at that point you might as well just be using valet.

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at.

I'm simply saying that parking a distance from the venue that's a fair comparison to the parking situation at the parks costs exactly the crazy amounts we keep talking about that you implied didn't exist.

And I conceded that cheaper parking exists, if you're willing to trade time/convenience rather than money.However, I think the point remains. $22 is not out of line for what you'll pay for comparable parking in event situations.

With that said:

maXairMike said:

Is that per day? I've heard of charges like that, but those kinds of places are usually so far out of my price range it doesn't matter to me. Now if that's a place like a Holiday Inn or basic Hyatt downtown...I'd be staying a little farther out and taking public transit.

Two things here, really.

1. The fact that it's not in your price range and doesn't matter to you doesn't mean these parking fees don't exist and that people don't regularly pay them. (and that applies to both posts of yours that I quoted)

2. Again you talk about trading convenience/time in an effort to save money. Which seems to indicate that you are well aware of the parking fees that you originally claimed to never run across and take action to avoid them and/or mitigate the cost.

3. There is no #3, but I did want to point out that plenty of "not out of your price range" hotels charge parking fees in the ballpark of what SFGADV is charging. A quick scan of these search results shows Holiday Inn hotels charging anywhere from $9 to $27 for parking. The Hyatt hotels seem to be even higher.

---

I dunno. The original point seemed to be that you said you never run across event parking prices like we talk about. I just pointed some out and noticed the way you actively avoid these charges. High-cost parking exists and people (not everyone, obviously) regularly pay for it.

To your fist point: You and others seem to be saying that there exists parking options even closer to venues than, say, the Geico Garage at the Amway Center (connected to Amway, public parking [$20], right across South St.). My experience is in large part with venues such as the Amway Center, namely large arenas in downtown areas or large cities in general. I'm saying that I've never run across information or signs for parking as close as everyone on the other side of the fence seems to be implying. At that point you're parking right next to the venue where staff like the venue manager/owner would be.

In most instances of events I've been to, public parking is easily had for just a block or two walk, and that is the closest your are getting no matter what you pay unless you're the event/venue manager or in a similar tax bracket (at which point this entire discussion is pointless). Curbside valet is the exception generally, and I pointed that out.

And yeah, after attending major events/destinations in different (and different sized) cities, I still can't believe you've encountered "normal" parking prices much above $20 (Super Bowl and such excluded, because it is far from "normal," see renting out living rooms in Indy for hundreds or thousands of dollars, definitely not normal) for events.

As to your second point...

1: I know they exist and that they regularly pay them, I've just not had any personal experience. And I do sometimes look at things far out of my price range, like RVs. For some reason I was looking at RVs last night even though I'll likely never have the money for one, let alone a home in the same range as some of the mid-level RVs. Its just that the hotels that charge those kinds of parking rates in a city like Chicago or NYC probably aren't charging that much or at all in smaller metros like Indy or Columbus, where I have looked at comparable hotels.

2: Again I'd argue that if you're staying at one of the above mentioned places you're either A) not paying for all or most of the expense, your job is; B) we're looking at a once-in-a-life vacation type situation/honeymoon/etc.; or C) you make enough that $45 a night plus several hundred a night isn't even a blip on your radar.

Also, you might notice that most larger cities where these kinds of parking fees are assessed have at least adequate public transit in the immediate downtown/developed areas (never mind that "walkable" downtowns are an "in" thing for urban planning recently). So in that sense the fees are not only profit centers but also go along with the general push to lower vehicle traffic and congestion across the metro area by financially punishing those who choose to drive.

Like NYC. You'd be stupid to use a personal vehicle there not only because of the absurd prices of parking, but because quite frankly, you don't need a car there anyway if you're staying within the NYC metro area. It takes just as long or longer to drive anywhere there (and other similar metro areas with adequate or better public transit), as it does to take the public transit.

Yes, start the whole public transit discussion about cleanliness, the bad rap it has here, etc. but the point still stands. The high prices aren't just because they can charge it and people will pay it, but also because of the nature of large cities.

So what does all that have to do with SFGAdv? Beyond the fact that its now higher than any regular event/destination parking I've heard of or seen, I don't really know. I just wanted to mention that I do actually look at things well out of my price range sometimes. ;)

Just like the "Animal Style" menu at In-N-Out, just because you don't see a sign for it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Timber-Rider said:
You know this kind of baffles me. Here people are complaining about the price of parking verses park value, but when I made the same comment about Michigan's Adventures $10.00 parking charge, people jumped all over me, like I was an insane person.

The first few posts in this thread poked fun at it. Seems like the same conversation to me with the main difference being that $10 for parking or free with a season pass is much different than $22 for parking or $60 for a parking pass.