Malls have become part and parcel of the leisure and recreation time of Filipinos. Malls are not only associated with shopping but are also closely referred to as a place to hangout in, socialize in and connect with other people. Malls are very much integrated into the Filipino psyche that a 2008 Nielsen Media Research indicated that "around 80 percent of Filipinos go to shopping centers and around 36 million people visit shopping plazas once or twice a month."[1]
The high affinity of Filipinos with shopping malls and the sheer number of people who visit these establishments, thus, bring with it a lot of logistical challenges and considerations. These areas include safety and security, crowd control, foot and vehicular traffic flow and sanitation concerns among others. Personally, however, the most trying aspect of going to the mall and holding office in the vicinity of a mall are parking related.
Finding an available parking slot is often times already a challenge in itself. What makes it more irksome is the long wait in line to get to the parking attendant to pay for your parking ticket and get out of the vicinity. In the shopping-office-residential complex that I work in, this wait can last for even as long as 30 minutes. This is a familiar scenario I am faced with every Friday night after work and I find myself waiting in line together with mall goers also heading home. Not only has it been inconvenient to maneuver through the traffic inside the parking area but also costlier as the waiting time gets added to ones parking fee. The same is true for other malls in other areas that I visit. There are instances wherein I also experience the long wait to the exit especially in the evening nearing closing hours when those who dined out or those who watched a movie also head out. I expect the situation to even be more strenuous as the Christmas season draws near and as malls hold pay day weekend store wide sales and midnight madness sales.
In order to help facilitate ease of entry and exit into parking areas and improve the traffic flow and payment facilitation, an idea is to implement the use of proximity cards or prox cards as a payment system. Motorists can just tap their prox card in a terminal as they enter the parking area and tap out into the exit terminal to make their payment. In this way, the need to issue parking tickets or parking cards during entry is eliminated. Also, the need to have parking attendants collect payments during exit is voided and queuing time is managed.
To eliminate the need to maintain multiple proximity cards for different establishments and satisfy different consumer needs, why not have one card that will be accepted in the different malls and establishments. To make it even more useful and practical to maintain, this proximity card can be the one card that Filipinos can use for their transportation, commute and motorist needs. This one card can thus be called the Juan Pass that can be used to facilitate access and payment of parking in different malls and retail areas. The Juan Pass can also be used as the payment and access system for the use of the MRT and LRT, the use of buses and shuttle services, and perhaps even e-jeepneys, among others.
The idea is to have the Juan Pass be a re-loadable proximity card that can be made available through leading establishments like convenient stores and sales kiosks in the train stations, bus terminals, mall concierges and retail outlets that sell prepaid cards. Value or load can be added via these channels as well. Acceptance and use of the Juan Pass can be extended later on as a means to add load to mobile phone services and as a means of payment to partner retail merchants and establishments like convenient stores, restaurants, supermarkets, and even gasoline stations as well.
Use of a proximity card can help ease logistical problems and inconvenience in malls. At the same time, it can also help integrate retail establishments with the transportation and motorist needs to make it a more pleasant customer experience. Lastly, the use of a single card can also promote integration of products and services on the part of retails and merchants from various sectors and industries.4
References:
1. International Association for Educational Assessment 2011 - http://www.iaea2011.com
[1] International Association for Educational Assessment 2011. Mall Nation Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.iaea2011.com/articles/52
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