PXT Payments on July 7 announced a smart debit card program in Brookline, Mass., tied to its Parcxmart street-parking application. Brookline and PXT officials are touting the card as a means for downtown retailers to compete with stores in malls that having plentiful parking.
Starting this fall, Brookline’s 57,000 residents may purchase the Brookline Debit Card online. The card will enable them to access the city’s parking areas and to secure discounts from participating retailers and restaurants. The Brookline.net website where consumers may buy the card is not yet operational. Consumers also will be able to obtain a card at local merchant location.
“Even if Brookline has The Gap, as well as many other enticing, unique boutiques, if it doesn’t have accessible parking, we can’t compete with the mall in the suburbs that has The Gap, a million other mundane chain stores, but easy parking,” Marge Amstar, Brookline commercial areas coordinator, notes in a news release. “That’s the modern economy. We lose consumers in that scenario.”
The debit card will function in the city’s single-space and digital pay and display meters.
