By Paul Milo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on December 01, 2016 at 7:50 AM, updated December 01, 2016 at 7:56 AM
PARAMUS — A New Jersey mall has come up with a 21st century answer to a problem that has plagued generations of holiday shoppers: finding a parking space.
Westfield Garden State Plaza partnered with MyPark, a Miami company that allows shoppers to reserve a parking space by using a downloadable app. The specially modified parking spaces are equipped with a gate that remains upright until the person who reserved the space uses the app to bring the gate down.
The mall announced the rollout Wednesday. A total of 33 spaces, located near the entrance to Nieman Marcus, will be available at a cost of $10 for four hours each, NorthJersey.com reported.
The mall has nearly 11,000 parking spaces for shoppers at its more than 300 stores. The Garden State Plaza sees about 18 million visits a year, according to figures provided by Westfield.
The MyPark service is already available at a few other locations, including six properties in Florida, but the company plans to introduce it at several more locations in 2017.
This would be great 20 years ago when people still went shopping at the mall and did not shop online.
The idea of paying $10 for the privilege of shopping at a mall literally makes me laugh.