And if Yorkdale becomes pay parking, people will go to Sherway, Vaughan Mills, Fairview, etc. instead, and not to downtown.
I haven't been that way in ages.
If we are talking about parking during the day when it is free, then I am always suspicious of going to a parking garage. Open air parking "looks" like is should be free, while a parking garage "looks" like it is pay. If the reality is that the parking garage if free, they better put large signs to tell people of that fact.
Yorkdale is, IIRC, the most successful mall - in terms of $ per sq. ft. - on the continent. As it is they have a valet service that I'm sure does OK and with every renovation their stores become more and more upscale. They have a Tesla store! (Of course, Eaton Centre charges for parking - but they're downtown.)
So while I don't expect they're going to charge for parking any time soon, I also don't think they have to worry about customers suddenly fleeing. "What, you expect me to pay $500 for this Coach purse and $2,000 for this Louis Vuitton bag and pick up $1,000 worth of sundry items at Holts AND pay $5 for parking?! We'll be off to the outlets at Vaughan Mill instead, thank you very much!"
I regret not getting a picture of it but last time I has there they had an amazingly passive aggressive said that effectively said, "If you just parked your car at the mall to take the TTC, yeah, sorry. We don't have TTC parking now - that's for shoppers - so get back in and go somewhere else."
Sum point being, Yorkdale is plenty secure with its position in the market. If we come to a point where they start charging for parking, I expect it will be the start of a trend, rather than them sending customers fleeing elsewhere.
And I agree people don't head to the garages. I come at the mall from the east so I've only been in them a couple of times but they're awesome, with those fancy lights showing you where open spots are. It's not a hassle, but it seems like it because you have to take a ticket etc. Just like I don't mind paying $2 extra to have a reserved seat at the movies, I might pay a couple of bucks for those instead of contending with the disaster that is that parking lot.