Are you ready to pay to park at Ala Moana Shopping Center? A sign of the times here in Hawaii.
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Are you ready to pay to park at Ala Moana Shopping Center? A sign of the times here in Hawaii.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
How will the mall know if you paid or not? Even more of a reason to shop with Amazon. Soon it will be like Waikiki – just for tourist.
Hey visitors get ready to be charged a fee also for the popular botanical Garden Ho’omaluhia on the windward side of Oahu! And reservations being implemented too! Remains free for us residents!
Can’t wait to see this back-fire miserably. What Mall requires it’s visitors to pay for parking??? Can’t think of anything worse that would deter shoppers from going in the first place… Mainland malls would Never.
I generally don’t shop at Alamoana, because it has become too overpriced. With this new parking fees, I probably won’t go at all.
Worst idea ever! I for one am tired of being nickled and dimed to death having to pay to park every single place. I don’t go there very often now as it is and if they charged for parking I wouldn’t go at all. Also, I’m not too good for the bus 🙂
If I have to start paying to park at Ala Moana Mall, I’ll start shopping at Wal-Mart, or Costco, where parking is still free.
I agree with a lot of the people commenting about locals abandoning Ala Moana for the paid parking. There should be a kama’aina special or free for kama’aina. Bottom line, paid parking or not, he mall hasn’t really been inviting to the locals for a long time. So many stores catering to the tourists. What happened to a lot of the good local businesses that were squeezed out of the mall? When I go to Ala Moana nowadays I do more looking than shopping. I shop at a small list of stores cause other places are either too luxury, not my style/taste or overall not appealing.
They should seriously think about a kama’aina discounted rate or free.
Worst idea I’ve heard of in a long time. Just like spending trillions of dollars to bring down inflation. This will eliminate local shoppers from shopping at Ala Moana Center.
The locals will abandon Ala moana unless they implement parking validation. Alamoana management needs to reminded what happened to liberty house after liberty house decided to cater to tourists and not the local market
That is a huge mistake. I don’t know how the merchant going feel about that when potential customers decide to go elsewhere because why should they have to pay for parking when they coming to shop and spend money at the center? I personally would not give ala moana shopping center my business if I have to also pay for parking- that should always be free to the shoppers. You the management needs money they need to find other ways to do that- not make things worse for the paying shoppers.
Thanks for sharing Beat of Hawaii!
Wow this is awful the prices just keep going up everywhere (in Hawaii and on the Mainland)!! Ala Moana Mall is going to lose lots of local customers which one wouldn’t think is wise on this economy.
Never going there again goodbye to ala Moana shopping center
So what happens if you reserve a stall and paid in advance and when you get there someone is in your reserved stall?
Ridiculous!! It seems everything in Hawaii is becoming limited to only the wealthy. Having to pay to shop and pay to go to certain beaches-what’s next? I enjoyed living in Hawaii for 50 wonderful years but I am glad I left before getting fleeced every way you turn.
Thanks for keeping us abreast of the issues affecting Hawaii.
No one has ever had to pay money for parking in a shopping mall the property owner should be happy to see customers coming to the stores for the tenants that are renting the spaces at the stores because if they customers didn’t come they wouldn’t be any stores and that means he wouldn’t be getting any rent so the people that are shopping there should park out on the street somewhere and not pay anything and protest against paying for parking. I would never shop there because of paying for parking.
I totally agree. You hit it on the nail. It’s going to have a negative ripple effect. Even tourists are paying fees for anything and everything. They wouldn’t want to pay more fees to go to a shopping mall. They would go elsewhere like Ward Village or Kahala Mall, etc. They have free parking.
What about the locals? Can locals still park for free?
Why would it matter where you reside? That doesn’t seem very fair making someone pay based off of where they live now does it?
From khon: “Ala Moana Center would like to highlight that parking is still free for customers and says there are 11,000 free parking options surrounding the property, including 4,500 parking spaces located in the Mauka Ewa Parking Structure”
Happy to shop Amazon.
I don’t live in Hawaii but I’d use to. Back in those days love going to Ala Moana Mall. Parking was a bit of an issue but not too much. Now however I would go too Pearlridge or Kahala, as long as parking is free. How long before these malls do the same thing?
There’s nothing more annoying than paid parking when you’re intent is to spend money. Back to the internet I go. Chances are the size or color I need won’t be in stock anyways and I don’t want to ask a store I didn’t buy from for validation. Validation anxiety and just overall don’t want to wait at a kiosk to come and go.
I’m ready to boycott Ala Moana.
There are plenty of other places to park and shop. Windward, Pearlridge, Kahala.
Hope the vendors know their business will drop off – they may want to move.
I think it’s a good idea. Keeps the huflums out of the parking lot. If you can’t afford it then you boycott.
“Huflums?”
Is that like riff-raff, hooligans, etc?
Mahalo as always for the update. The parking fee makes “grab and go” from the Ala Moana food court a”no-go” with the extra cost to park.
No, no, no and heck no! Ingress and egress is already a cluster as it is. How will they manage ticket gates and exit payment machines. It will back up to Kahala Mall…..maybe just go there instead?
This is totally a bad idea.
First, The people who live far will not go there.
2nd. They’ll find other places and other avenues to shop, 3rd. Which will mean sales will decline, stores will close, more empty shops will be seen by all.
4th and most important, it’s not like Ala Moana is running out of available parking spaces, please. Very stupid decision which i believe it will back fire.
In my case, it will be an uncomfortable situation. I can walk to it, but i will not be walking with all the bags that I usually put in my car and continue shopping.
Its your move….
I hope in a follow up article you can talk about how this will affect the Mall employees. The larger operators such as Westfield charge employees $3-10 a day or $40-$90 for a monthly parking.
A minimum wage job parking fees + the price of gas , I wouldn’t be surprised if mass walk outs start.
Having done business in Ala Moana since the mid-1980’s, things change, the Mall has added a 3rd Floor in the early millennia, basically adding 1/5 more stores with no added Parking, but at it’s heart, the issue is Ala Moana Park and Beach (Daytime), the Prince Hotel that replaced a Hospital in the early ’90’s, should have been Parking. The Retail Associates cannot take the Parking of paying Customers, but a Decal or something needs be on their Windshield and they get the Level One Parking or off-site, aside from the Hotel, there are Offices that use the Parking, as well. Night Dining, minimally should include Free Parking, this is one area Locals have to pony up, it’s their Shopping Center too.
This is a local problem. I quit renting a car for my annual 2 week vacation years ago. Take the bus everywhere. Convenient, cheap, simple way to explore. Take bus daily for afternoon lunch/dinner in Kaimuki or Kahala, rarely eat in waikiki!
Most shopping centers in CA offer free parking for the first 3 hours, and then a premium rate thereafter. This isn’t new news. How is one to reserve a parking stall at Ala Moana? Is there an App for that???
My gut says they will validate parking. Do the same here in kaanapali. I really can’t blame the mall. It’s their property and it was built for the convenience of their customers. Not for beach goers and such.
So Hawaii, what’s next? You charge now to visit certain parks and tourist locations. Tourist’s pay the highest hotel taxes in the United States. Now, we have to start paying to park at a shopping mall where we as tourist’s along with local people spend money to shop and keep people working. Are you now going to start charging for the air we breathe? I’m sure that is probably next.
Last I looked The Ala Mona is owned and operated by Brookfield properties headquartered in NY,NY. So let’s give credit where credit is due. And FYI most major malls located in major cities started charging for parking years ago. “Hawaii” is just catching up.
I live in Phoenix and None of our malls charge for parking. If you’re going to charge for parking at least validate for people who buy something, as opposed to those who just wander around for hours.
I see no problem with the parking fee as long as all stores will validate the parking. I suppose there has to be some sort of time limit. Locals often complain about the tourists and how we are harming Hawaii, but this seems as if it will hit the locals hardest. Really unfair.
This reminds me of hotels that now have a “resort fee.” Before getting into the parking issue, hotels that don’t have a golf course, a swimming pool, and a significant gym are not resorts. People should avoid them and tell them why.
“For parking we just checked, 1-4 hours was priced at: $2.88 per hour, pus tax and service fee. Total cost is $4.30/hour.”
Why is there a “service fee?” Isn’t that what having the spaces to park is -service? The difference between 2.88 and 4.30 is $1.42. Say the tax is $0.25. That means the fee to park there is not 2.88, it’s about $4.05 /hour. That’s nearly half of the current minimum hourly wage in Hawaii.
I’m disgusted.
Won’t pay to park there. Will shop at outlying area stores. Prices are high enough.
What a shame. Guess I won’t be doing much shopping at Foodland anymore unless I happen to be also going to the mall. Hopefully the Don Quijote/Walmart/Sam’s club don’t get the same idea.
So, what’s Pearlridge and Windward look like these days? I mourned when I learned that the free military parking lots at Ft. Derussy had been closed. If I were still up at Schofield, this would just give me more incentive to be a barracks rat instead of getting out into the community (and the economy).
I honestly would rather not pay for parking and drive to another shopping center. Though I live a short distance from Ala Moana Shopping Center, I usually take my car so as to grocery shop and have the storage space needed for shopping. If they charge for parking, they are going to lose those of us who cannot get validated at the very least! Thank you for making us aware of the issue! Love “Beat of Hawaii” and Mahalo Nui Loa! Keep up the great work!
Hi Trish.
Thanks for your first comment! Yes, not sure how this will impact us in the future either.
Aloha.
Lol it never ends ….