A BIG +1 to Docnick’s comment!
At the local supermarket, the employees park at the back of the lot to preserve their vehicles.
Around here, the businesses dictate that employees park in the back or on the outskirts to give preference to the customers. It’s a side benefit that they are clustered together and get fewer dings that way. I had a part time job back in the 70s at a department store and even back then, employees had to park in a designated area away from the front.
Employees where I work that park in the public garage tend to cluster together for protection though. I’ve pulled in to a spot only to look more closely at the car next to me and decide to move down a ways. Your car is all dinged/wrinkled up? I’ll move down a bit…
A few years ago I had a woman (certainly not a lady) with a huge SUV parked such I couldn’t get into my car tell me she didn’t care about people driving “stupid little cars”. Wow. And that was when I still had the full sized Impala. I won’t repeat what my response was as I wasn’t feeling particularly charitable that day and failed to maintain a ladylike sense of decorum in my response.
My mother had an interesting way of dealing with such a situation many years ago. We came out of a store to find cars parked either side of ours literally with barely 4 to 6 inches clearance. Mom had to open the trunk, climb in and push the back seat forward enough for my skinny 10 year old brother to climb through, start the engine and pull the car straight forward. Then Mom had to wrestle the back seat into proper position again. She handed my brother her brand new lipstick, had him climb on the hoods of both cars that had boxed ours in and write messages about the rude stupidity of such bad parking all over both windshields. And this was on a very hot summer day. We then drove off with Mom stopping somewhere to buy a replacement lipstick. Normally my mom was every inch a considerate lady but that day she simply was mad as…
I do all the shopping since I’ve passed the retirement finish line before the missus so this thread definitely resonates. I drive a Suburban and the two things I always try to do are 1) park well away from the store as I don’t mind the walk and 2) pull through into the next parking space so that I’m moving forward as opposed to backing up when leaving. I’m finding that parking spaces in newer or repainted lots seem to be getting smaller. It’s enough of a pain situating my twenty year old truck in some of these spots - I can’t imagine the terror involved in parking a new Navigator or Excursion especially when it’s busy. Someone commented about speeding and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen self absorbed ass-hats traveling the street limit in the cross hatched pedestrian portion of the lane right in front of the store. I’ve also learned when leaving that it is paramount to check in every direction, a full 360 degrees twice because the time I don’t some idiot is going to nail me as he sails diagonally across the lot looking for a shortcut to the perfect spot!
I -NEVER- go ‘‘parking space shopping’’ and I guarantee you I’m inside the store far sooner than all those yayhoos cruising up and down or sitting, idling, and waiting in line to park a little closer.
At our Wal Mart I go down the entry way to the third right turn aisle and swing around into a space then hoof it about twenty spaces into the store. Same space every time.
Then others finally got the idea too and I find ‘‘my’’ space take a lot more often now.
While walking to the store , past all those still waiting to get closer, I speak out loud , not knowing if they hear me or not ( but kinda hoping that they might ) ‘‘just park already ! you’d already be in the store.’’
Even with these parking lot practices you’ll see horizontal scatches down the sides of my trucks.
Baffled me for a while till I watched my kids race out of the garage and down the driveway on their bikes ( between three trucks parked there )…handle bar scratches !
ken green I have had the same experience. Every 2 to 3 Months I go to a discount grocery store to stock up. There is only one driveway where everyone seems to go past the large main parking lot then turn onto the driveway in front of the store. Of course there are rarely empty spaces there so they wind further and further away from the store looking for a space. I discovered when I moved here almost 14 years ago if I did not make the turn to go in front of the store that there were 12 spaces on the side of the store where 2 or 3 vehicles would be parked. There is even a cart rack. Now days some people have caught on and there is usually only 2 or 3 empty spaces. I still don’t know why these are not the most coveted spaces. Additionally the main parking lot driveways are one way so you have to make your way to the two way drive in front of the store then to the exit driveway. All I have to do is back out and go straight to the exit.
For the employees it’s not just to preserve their vehicles but also they are probably required to park in the back of the lot or way off on the side. The grocery store where I work used to require that the employees park on the side of the building behind a line painted into the lot. That was before I started but the further away from the building the better. Some night employees really push the envelope.
Personally, I always park on the far reaches of any parking lot. I’d rather avoid the door dings and half blind drivers milling around near the doors.
I’ve seen people pull in looking for a parking spot up close and when I would exit the store 10 or 15 minutes later they were still circling; much like a vulture scouring the landscape for a carcass.
One woman was seen to bypass an empty spot about 6 spaces out multiple times in the hope of getting something closer. Jeez, she could have been in and gone in the time she spent hovering…
FDLOL Love the description of “like a vulture scouring the landscape for a carcass”. Priceless!
I used to park far enough away from store entrances to give me a good hike, but that was back when I could walk without pain. I did it for the exercise.
Ken, the next time you loudly speak snide remarks at those trying to get a close space trying to humiliate them, remember that many of those people you’re trying to humiliate may just have walking disabilities that aren’t obvious. I used to make extra efforts to get a close space before I got so bad that I finally had to admit to myself that I was disabled and got a handicap permit. Frankly, I have the “hang it from the mirror” placard because I don’t want to give up my veteran’s plates, so as I’m driving around it isn’t even obvious that I have a walking disability.
I go to the ymca occasionally. hard to believe how many people cruise and wait for the closest parking spot to be able to go in and exercise!
I’ve seen this at Gold’s Gym too.
Humans are illogical.
If you really want to know, you will have to wait until they come back to their car and ask them, no sense asking us, we didn’t do it.
I recall a photo of a gym with 6 handicap parking spaces at the foot of about 20 stairs. It was probably photo shopped but were I worked the minimum handicap spaces were provided with absolutely no handicap access to the buildings!
Y’know, on thinking about it I’m a bit ashamed at having written my earlier post. A lot of handicapped people like to exercise too. There are countless paraplegics, people with a lost limb, and others with walking disabilities that still like to go to the gym and work out, including those having acquired their disabilities in military service. Sincere apologies to those with disabilities that do like to go to the gym.
Re: the lack of handicap access, this is very common. I very often encounter buildings open to the public that have handicap spaces but no buttons, and often with doors that are very hard to open. I even know of one place, Marshall’s in Bedford NH, that has stickers on the door telling those requiring assistance to ask a salesperson. What is a disabled person to do, sit in the rain, look up the store’s phone number, and call in a request… if someone answer’s the phone? I refuse to shop there because of this.
My own college recent rebuilt their main entryway, and they put a ramp and handicap spaces right out front but no handicap buttons to open the doors. And yes, those are large heavy doors.
To me the lack of regard for the disabled is appalling.
^
I agree 100% with you, mountainbike, as I usually do.
Years ago, I didn’t give much thought toward the concept of accommodations for the handicapped, and then I became handicapped–luckily for just a few months.
During the period when I was unable to walk without crutches, I became only too aware of which stores and office buildings have little consideration for the handicapped. In fact, because I was working as an independent contractor at the time, I had to leave my job, due to having no “sick days”, and due to my office building being almost hostile in its lack of accommodations for the handicapped.
The supervisors said that they were sad to see me go (and I think that they were being honest in that statement), but just getting from my car up to the second floor of that building, and then maneuvering around the building on a daily basis was exhausting, so I had no choice but to leave.
I think that the folks who “steal” or block handicapped parking spaces should be forced to experience what handicapped folks go though in order to get some perspective on the subject.
“They banned plastic bags? First light bulbs and now bags. What next?”
Plastic bags were banned by some local and state governments. There is no ban on light bulbs, and the federal ban on incandescent bulbs was overturned.
The absolute worst example of disregard for the handicapped was done by the state of NH itself. They built a new liquor store in Nashua, NH a few years back (in NH the state owns all liquor stores) and in order to get a LEED certification (an environmental organization) they put “hybrid only” parking spaces right in front of the doors and pushed the handicap spots to the corner of the parking lot. That shows not only disregard by the state, but also total arrogance and disregard by the “Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design” (LEED) organization, who promotes these “reserved for hybrid” parking spaces next to the entry doors in building design. It left me with a very negative opinion of the LEED group. Fortunately, the public outcry was strong enough that the state had to go back and reconfigure the parking lot.
There are various reasons for banning plastic bags, not all of them make sense. At one time our Co-op supermarket gave people a choice of paper or plastic, bending to the group that favored renewable materials. Those days are long gone, since making paper bags uses a lot of non-renewable energy, and cost a lot more to make. They now sell reusable sturdy bags along with free plastic ones. We use both and reuse the plastic ones as kitchen catchers.
Most of India just banned plastic bags for one main reason; too many sacred cows were ingesting them and dropping dead on public streets.
the same mountainbike My former workplace that I described was a state building on city property occupied by military and DoD civilians. A brand new facility was built soon after I left with excellent handicap access with the exception of parking which was adequate at the old building. The normal location for handicap parking spaces are the LEED hybrid only spaces. Hybrid only? Are EV drivers SOL? One more shining example of planning is a mall in the big city. Adequate parking spaces and ramp access of the well marked crossing of the main driveway that leads to A SIX INCH CURB!!! How difficult would it be to modify the curb into a ramp? Apparently impossible since it has existed for more than 15 years!