The Importance of Keeping your Parking Lot Clean

Studies have shown that cleanliness ranks as a top factor when people determine where to shop. External cleanliness is seen by many as being as important as that of the interior of the building. Here are some of the advantages of sweeping your property regularly:

 

• Outside parking areas are where business owners hope their potential customers will derive an initially good ‘first impression.’ The way the outside area looks also projects an image of how the rest of the concern will be operated. If exterior maintenance is slipshod, then potential customers might well expect the internal cleanliness and other affairs of the mall or business to also be poorly run.

 

• People like to patronize the successful. Clearly, all businesses would choose to have a clean parking area, all other considerations aside. The unwillingness or inability to keep a particular area cleaned projects an image of not being successful.

 

• Shopping centers are finding maintenance of market share to be an increasingly competitive proposition. It’s virtually impossible to develop or retain the desired competitive edge if the grounds on the exterior of the business are unkempt.

 

• Even the most beautiful landscaping project is negated by a parking area cluttered with debris. If they see objects that might flatten a tire, people hesitate to drive in due to the potential for tire damage.

 

• Correct management of stormwater runoff is a big factor for owners of parking areas today. Sweeping is an EPA Best Management Practice (BMP) for runoff control. A structured sweeping program can help to convince regulatory agencies that stormwater runoff pollutants are being minimized.

 

• When a parking area is clean to begin with, shoppers are more careful throwing trash out of their cars when they come to shop.

 

• Sand, dirt and other trash are abrasive. If left on a parking area, they will shorten the useful life of pavement, as well as the length of service time of pavement sealcoating and striping.

 

• The professionalism of the local business community at large is a composite of the individual images projected by each of the businesses within it. When people have several places where they feel comfortable shopping in a particular neighborhood or township, traffic is increased throughout the entire general area.

 

• When a parking area remains unswept for a long enough period it will attract rodents and other potentially disease-carrying or dangerous animals.

 

• Keeping litter picked up reduces the chances of slip-and-fall injuries, as well as the business property’s potential liability in any resultant lawsuits.

 

• When dirt is allowed to stay on pavement, it quickly starts deteriorating the paving material. This is especially true when enough dirt collects to start plants growing, since their roots cause cracking in cement and asphalt. Replacement costs for pavement far exceed the routine expense of sweeping.