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parking problem need advice

T

The_Fat_Boy

Member
hello everyone
got a problem with my neighbor across the street

we are on main st

okay so every tues, thurs, & sat he holds a amatuer siging hodown in his music store we are in a small town with parking on the street the whole main st fills up both sides, now on his side of the street is a huge parking lot just
100ft from his door but the people still pull up get out of their car look up at my sign and still walk across the street into his bldg

i have put sign on bldg stating

PLEASE
FAT BOYS PIZZZA
CUSTOMER PARKING
ONLY

but they dont seem to care cant get city to help because of enforcement issues

oh i didnt mention the guy who owns the music shop use to be my landlord a couple of years ago he wouldnt repair anything so we moved out

ant suggestion on how to handle this situation
 
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Parking issues are a real tough one. Each of those cars parked in front of your store are potential customers. With this in mind you must be very diplomatic with your approach. Here are a few dumb ideas from a grumpy fat bald guy. Have a coupon made up to look like a parking ticket. It could read something like: The parking space you have used is reserved for our customers so here is $xx off for and order of (what ever the case may be). This will make your parking in this spot legitimate. Or you could go the other way and put coupons on the cars that are NOT parked in front of your place to say thank you for being considerate.

Like I said a couple of dumb ideas from the grumpy old man.
 
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The Fat Boy:
i have put sign on bldg stating

PLEASE
FAT BOYS PIZZZA
CUSTOMER PARKING
ONLY
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I know your trying to be polite but the “please” makes it sound a bit optional and at the people’s discretion. Just a thought . . .

How bout putting signs in front of each parking spot? If you can, its certainly more direct and will get their attention more. I don’t know your setup but maybe you can then communicate to your employees to monitor the situation. If in doubt as to whether they are coming in for pizza or not, just put a big smile on as they are getting out of the car and ask them “coming in for pizza tonight?”.
 
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I don’t think there is anything you can really do about it - unless I’m misunderstanding your post, you are talking about people who are parking on a public street. The spaces in front of your store are not “yours” to reserve for your customers.

I’m not sure exactly what you can do - what are the parking laws in your city?
 
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The Fat Boy:
but they dont seem to care cant get city to help because of enforcement issues
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Registered Guest hit square on the same issue I had a few years back in my 1st location. Like Fat Boy, we were on the Main Street downtown in a tony little town (same town now with different location). All city parking with no real regulation. It was a free for all. Saturday nights, a group would have “gospel singing” downtown and suck up some 80% of all available parking, all within sight of my store, and none were potential customers in the real sense of the term. We were not part of the “in crowd” so scant few came to town to spend any $$$.

The only recommendation I can offer you is to contact the planning and zoning commission/committee/person and ask for assistance. If you have a Development Authority, they might be willing to help. Without Ordinance action from the city, the city parking is unfettered, and people will simply park at your storefront. Leaving you with Daddio’s idea, but modified a little. Saying the parking is ‘reserved’ will stir the pudding a good bit, and make it harder to get anything done. Use words like “revenue production” and “tax dollars being spent” versus the no-dollar event.

ALSO check into the city’s special event permitting. If they are impacting traffic and parking patterns that much on a regular basis, then it is quite possible that a permit is required, and you might get some input as to parking relief for those nights. Speak to the police department about it, or see if the municipal code is available online . . . or just call city hall and ask for a special event permit application and see what you get.
 
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I agree. You should find out what the regulations are from your landlord and city as far as what you can do before you waste money doing anything. We once had a problem with employees of other business taking all the spots in front of our store. After talking to the managers/owners of the other shops about it,nothing ever got done. So we had someone paint For Pizza Parking Only in the two rows in front of our store. It worked for awhile until one of the other shop owners complained to the company that owned the shopping center and made us remove them.
 
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Just so we are all clear…You talking about folks parking on a public street versus them parking in your own lot?..
 
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royster13:
Just so we are all clear…You talking about folks parking on a public street versus them parking in your own lot?..
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Painting on the public street Fat Boy is talking about will likely get him fined and a really bad relationship with the public works department (or ‘street guys’).
 
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I think Daddio is headed the right direction. Here is another way to look at the situation:
  1. Your whole street is crowded with potential customers three times a week with no marketing expense on your part. (We should all have such problems!)
  2. Instead of thinking about how to get them to park someplace else, how about figuring out how to get them to come in the door since they are parked so close!
I would have a huge sign in my window about “Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Carry-out Special”. I would put fliers on the windows of the cars and I would put orange cones in “my” parking area. My guess is that the parking all occurs about the same time as people arrive, so if you manage the issue for that half hour you are probably good for the evening right?
 
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thanks guys i appreciate the quick and very good ideas
i think i am going to try Daddio’s idea with a twist like this
For the cars that park in front of the store

Town of Pizza Lovers

you were seen parking in front of
Fat Boys Pizza
you are here by suppeniaed
to enjoy $3 Off any
Large Pizza

you must appear on or before
_________________________ (write in date 2 weeks from this day)
(coupon expires on date above)

Thank You
Pizzaolio On Duty

and for cars that park across the street

Town of Pizza Lovers

you were seen being considerate to
Fat Boys Pizza
you are here by Suppeniaed
to enjoy $3 Off any
Large Pizza

you must appear on or before
_________________________ (write in date 2 weeks from this day)
(coupon expires on date above)

Thank You
Pizzaolio On Duty

what do you think
 
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If you are trying to encourage them to park across the street you may want to give those that do so a better deal than those that park where you do not want them parking. 😃
 
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spell check subpoena before you print anything up 🙂

It’s a public street. You are completely powerless in this situation. The fact that the guy used to be your former landlord and you had issues, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re parking in front of your store intentionally.

One suggestion might be to invite over a large group for free pizza. An example would be a “honor roll student” night where honor roll students eat free. Just time it on the same day, but a little earlier than the karaoke starts up. The idea is to crowd the street with YOUR customers. However, you’re very probably going to be in a whizzing match (if you unknowingly aren’t already), so decide if you want to get into such gamesmanship.
 
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