Shoppers call on Chadstone to introduce more parking spots
Shoppers have slammed Melbourne’s biggest shopping centre, labelling the carparking situation “atrocious”. Customers say they’re avoiding the centre during peak times and are begging centre management for more spots.
Inner East
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Chadstone Shopping Centre’s carpark has been labelled a gridlocked nightmare by shoppers.
The Leader sought feedback on social media from several shoppers who slammed the carparking situation as “atrocious”, while others took to the centre’s Facebook page to complain.
Shoppers say they are avoiding the centre during weekends and peak times, and are begging management for more car spots.
Adi Frisch said she was stuck within a “horrific traffic jam” while desperately searching for a park.
“I made the huge mistake of going there on a Saturday afternoon. Not only are all car parks taken, and finding parking is near impossible, the road around the back of Chadstone is a super narrow, two way, one lane road,” Ms Frisch said.
Another shopper, who asked not to be named, said she avoided the centre on weekends at all costs.
“The genius valet parking took away the entire area allocated for parents with prams,” she said.
“Every time I drive past it there would be a maximum of four cars in there — so frustrating.
“The green lights that are meant to show available parks also don’t work very well — there are always ones alight that aren’t actually free.”
Shopper Susan also took to the centre’s Facebook page to complain, saying it took her 40 minutes trying to find a carpark and she left without setting foot in the centre.
Another shopper, Rachael, said the carpark wasn’t big enough.
“So frustrating that you go there and there’s not enough spots,” Rachael wrote.
“Went home after trying to park the car for nearly an hour. Not even a busy time of the year, don’t know how people find parks in the Christmas period.”
Marcus Bayer said he experienced issues with parking and finding a table in the main food court.
“Parking is nothing compared to trying get a seat for food. Really badly designed and not big enough,” Mr Bayer said.
Chadstone director Fiona Mackenzie said the centre had not received an increase in complaints about parking.
“We have more than 10,000 free parking spaces available at Chadstone — this includes 65 spaces dedicated to parents or carers with prams and more than 130 disabled parking spaces,” Ms Mackenzie said.
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“While our parking and security teams manage our car park 24 hours a day and we have clearly marked allocated spaces for parents with prams and customers with disability permits we generally have to rely on other customers to do the right thing.”
Ms Mackenzie said the centre had introduced valet parking and would continue to employ traffic managers every weekend and during peak periods, to manage congestion and direct customers to the best parking areas.
She said there were no plans in the works to introduce paid parking.