Parking at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre turning away customers

By 9 am the car park at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre is already full.

Customers are choosing not to shop at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre during the $450 million redevelopment due to a lack of parking.

Shopper Doug Green says he would rather shop online than go to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre.

“I don’t have to worry about parking if I shop online,” he says. 

“I get incredibly frustrated whenever I have to park at the shopping centre.

“I’m not going to travel to stores that aren’t close to parking, and there isn’t much available at the moment.”

Kate Kernahan agrees there is no longer adequate parking at the centre.

“There are next to no car parks, and I need somewhere to park my car,” she says.

“It’s just inconvenient.

“I will probably shop at Mt Ommaney over Christmas.”

Miss Kernahan says there is not enough information about where existing shops have moved to.

“It’s really confusing,” she says.

“I spent a good hour looking for Lowes the other day, only to find it had moved down two levels.”

Lisa Morris, an employee at a large department store in Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, says customers have a negative attitude towards shopping at Indooroopilly.

“A lot of the centre has been cut off, meaning customers aren’t able to find store they were looking for,” she says.

“Many of the low price stores have closed, such as Harvey Norman, Crazy Clarks and Best and Less.”

Miss Morris says many customers complain about the parking at the centre.

“The parking is atrocious,” she says.

“On weekends, we have staff directing customers to areas where they are able to park.”

Many customers are choosing to shop elsewhere to avoid parking at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre.

She says this has impacted the number of customers shopping at her store, resulting in a loss of profits.

“We have had nearly a 10 per cent loss of sales since the beginning of the renovations,” she says.

“Customers are choosing to shop at Mt Ommaney and Toowong instead of our store.”

Leading up to the Christmas period, Miss Morris is worried her store will not be able to reach sales targets.

“I’m very concerned,” she says.

“There won’t be a lot of parking available and there aren’t many shops in the centre, so people will choose to go elsewhere.”

Centre Management were contacted but declined to comment.

The redevelopment of Indooroopilly Shopping Centre includes a new David Jones and Woolworths, and an addition of 120 new specialty stores.

It will include the addition of 900 more car parks.

The expansion is expected to be completed in 2014.

More information on the redevelopment of Indooroopilly Shopping Centre can be found at: http://www.indooroopillyshopping.com.au/redevelopment/index.php?id=1 

Timeline of how construction has progressed so far.