Del Mar Highlands Town Center by Donahue Schriber
A surprising new promotional concept offered in Del Mar Highlands Town Center in San Diego is allowing shoppers to travel to the mall for free by using Uber. Donahue Schriber, the company which owns the center,, has a contract with Uber to pay for shoppers travelling to and from the center for the next nine months or until a total spending of $100,000 is reached. This is a way to combat parking congestion and to improve business at the shopping center.
Uber has developed technology to identify the starting point or destination at the shopping center, in which a $25 discount is automatically applied. There is no catch or manual labor required. All the mall-goer needs to do is to request an Uber ride. This is not the first time a rideshare promotion has been implemented before. The Grove shopping mall in Los Angeles ran a similar promotion for five weeks and was used solely for holiday shopping.
Elizabeth Schreiber, Vice President of Operations and Development at Donahue Schriber, said, “We know that the No. 1 frustration that our customers have is parking.” And she continues, “We also know that there is no mass transit in north San Diego. Up until today, the only way customers had to get to our shopping center, was to drive here.”
The Highlands Town Center is working to increase capacity to 1,968 parking stalls, however the strip mall currently is down 200 of its regular spaces in an already crowded center. This partnership with Uber will encourage suburban drivers to ride with Uber and mitigate parking issues and even tap into a new marketing venue and service.
Technology is indeed making life easier for shoppers and shop owners alike, but at what cost will it make shopper’s lives easier? This is a very creative, yet ambitious effort to implement a free rideshare promotion at a major mall. Shoppers and even non-shoppers will take full advantage of this promotion and only time will tell if it will become a worthy necessity.
Source: The Sandiego Union Tribune – Free Uber Rides for Shoppers
Additional Information: Del Mar Highlands Center – Information
Donahue Schriber – History
