A new strip mall is being considered and the developers want to determine how many parking spaces there should be. It is assumed that if the lot is full, an arriving car will leave. Cars arrive at a rate of 15/hour. The average time a customer spends shopping is 30 minutes. Assume the interarrival times and the shopping times are exponentially distributed. Assume the average shopper purchases $150 worth of merchandise and also assume the mall is open 12 hours/day, 350 days/year. a) If there are 10 spaces, determine the throughput rate of cars departing after completing shopping, the expected number of cars in the parking lot and the rate of lost revenue due to cars leaving because they could not find a space to park.
b) Assume the cost to create a parking spot is $2500. Assuming a 5 year horizon and an internal interest rate of 15%, how many spots should be built to minimize the combined construction and lost revenue costs?