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3. PARKING STUDIES The annual transaction data supplied by Contractors' Warehouse for 2004 showed that, for both stores, the busiest day of the week was Saturday; the busiest month was October; and the busiest consecutive 8 howl occurred from 8 AM to 4 PM. Therefore, parking demand studies were conducted at the two study stores in October 2005, and both of the studies were conducted on a Saturday between 8 AM and 4 PM. Each store was contacted prior to the study to ensure that no unusual activities would be taking place at the store or in the parking lot on the day of the study. Parking Lot Use As shown in Table 1, 113 parking spaces were available for use at the Montebello store and 163 spaces were available at the Pomona store. The "parking spaces available" represents the actual number of parking spaces that were open for customer (and employee) parking on the day of the study. In some cases, not all of the parking spaces constructed at a store are available to park in because some may be taken "out of service" by the placement of sales displays, building materials, and/or the temporary storage of equipment. The Montebello store did not have any parking spaces taken out of service, but the Pomona store had a total of 22 spaces taken out of service by the storage of bathtubs, rental equipment, and forklifts. Despite this, the Pomona store still had more parking spaces available for customers than the Montebello store. In addition, it appeared the number of spaces taken out of service appeared to be typical of the Pomona store's routine operations, most likely due to the fact that the smaller Pomona store had more parking available to it. Detailed surveys of each store's parking lot layout and use are presented in Appendix A. At the top of each hour during the parking study, a complete inventory of the number of parking spaces occupied in the store parking lot was taken. This inventory was taken on an aisle-by-aisle basis so that a general spatial pattern of parking use could be determined as well as a numerical one. In terms of numbers, neither of the Contractors' Warehouse store parking lots filled to capacity on the study days. The Montebello store experienced a peak occupancy of 78% of the parking spaces available for use, while the Pomona store experienced a peak occupancy of 61 %. This equates to an average peak occupancy between the stores of 69%. The peak parking occupancy occurred at 2 PM at the Montebello store and at 3 PM at the Pomona store (see Table 2). Spatially, several patterns of parking lot use became apparent during the hourly parking inventory counts that warrant discussion. These include customer and employee parking habits, lumberyard activity, and day laborer activity. Of the two locations, the Pomona store has a more traditional retail store parking lot as it is located in a shopping center in a generally suburban (retail/residential) area. As such, its parking lot generally extends along the length of the warehouse and is well defined and landscaped. The Montebello store is in an industrial area and has a less traditional parking lot, with most of the parking concentrated in one corner of the property. Both stores have lumber yard parking areas that operate differently from traditional parking areas. Parking Study of Two COIM-act07 s Warehouse Stores --- Final Report Page 5 31441