Judi Franco: The new mall ‘parkings apps’ are great, but…

Everyone knows that one of the worst aspects of shopping during the holiday season is the parking lot situation.

If you go through police blotters throughout New Jersey, I'm sure you will find that many a good percentage at least a road rage incident occurred in parking lots, usually over spots and who got there first. It's pretty amusing when you think that in the time that you would stop to have a road rage incident over a parking spot, you could have easily walked the extra distance from the spot that you thought was way too far to park in.

Well, some malls in New Jersey are going to surprise you this holiday season with a brand-new app. And it is the best idea I've ever heard of.

When you talk about whether technology is a good or a bad thing, this is one of those things that put it on the plus side. This new parking app will be available at many malls throughout the state and eventually, I'm guessing, soon it will be everywhere. It gives you the ability to reserve one of a select few spots usually 30 or 40 or so that are set aside just for people who use the app. It's sort of like a cross between a preferred parking situation and valet parking.

One of the things that keeps people away from the malls during the holiday season is the whole parking issue. And it's obvious that retailers need to try to pump up business in anyway they can with the Internet virtually taking over. So this is a win-win for them and for customers who actually like the experience of "physically" shopping, but can't stand the idea of walking through blustery out door parking spaces or fighting over spots.

I'm thinking this will be a great boon to New Jersey mall business, and I know that personally I'd be much more apt to shop in the next two weeks if I knew I could get a really good spot! I think it even better use for this app would be in beach areas in the summer especially on streets where parking is scarce.

I know that people would go out of their way to reserve in advance if they knew that they didn't have to lug the beach chair, coolers, shovels and pails seven blocks on a hot summer morning.

So come on app developers! You've got a few months to make this happen! I want this app ready for bikini season! After all, in the summer at the Jersey Shore having a primo spot is like having your own private beach. Well, not really, but it's pretty damn convenient.

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