Did you have to lug a large amount of items around the store in your arms? Did you need to bring a wheelbarrow from home to carry your purchases back to your car? No, the store thoughfully provided carts for your use. How hard is it, for all the convience that is provided to you, to put them back in the cart return areas all over the lot? No, not in the parking space next to the cart rack, actually in the rack. I’m sure you love to pull into an apparently open spot only to find that two carts are sitting there, far away from their brethren, but I don’t.
And another thing. This is Chicago. Every year it snows during winter. It’s not a fluke this year. And every year they plow the snow for the good of everyone. And sometimes they don’t have enough room to put all the snow from the parking lot, so some spaces end up half filled with snow. Yes, my little Sunfire can fit in some of these spaces, its one reason I own such a small car. No, your behemouth SUV won’t fit in the same spot. Sorry, this is one disadvantage to buying such a large vehicle. So don’t think that just because the front of your monster fits in the spot that it’s okay for you to block half of the lane between parkign spots. There’s already enough insanity in the lots without this added hazard.
So let’s try to have a little curtousy and common sense and it will make the ordeal of shopping an easier one for all concerned.
Oh, yeah. This one really chaps my hide, too. I’d like to thank the lazy asshole who left their cart sitting outside the cart corral on a windy day. But it wasn’t one of the normal carts. Oh, no. It was one of those lovely monstrosities that has a metal cart on the front and the rear is shaped like a car for little tykes to sit in while mommy or daddy shops. They’re probably twice the length of a normal cart and more fucking heavy. So, thanks to this nimrod who thought that leaning it against the outside of the cart corral on a windy day was a good idea, I now have a lovely foot-long dent on the right front quarter panel of my car.
It won’t kill you to walk an extra 50 feet to the store entrance. Trust me, I do it all the time. It’ll take you less time to park down at the end of the aisle and walk it than to wait for the pregnant mother to load her 17 kids into her car and get out of the closer space. I have seen folks wait for someone to get into their car and back out when there have been open spaces no more than 3 spots further down the aisle.
Pedestrians have the right of way - let them cross in front of you. You can spare those 5 seconds.
Try and center your car in the space - when the lines are only 4" wide, being “between them” when you’re butting up against one of them makes it hard for the person next to you to get into their car. Many’s the time I’ve accidentally hit the side of your car with my door.
If the sign says “Compact Cars Only”, don’t park your Chevy Suburb in the space.
Hell no, fuck that! If I ever find the asshat that originally thought that “Compact Parking” was a good idea, I am going to personally give them a swift kick to the crotch. What totally moronic concept! Maybe it’s okay for you yankees and your pissant little cars, but down here in Texas, where trucks are the (vast) majority, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. I personally use take up two “compact” spaces at a time when I get a chance. Screw you if you don’t like it!
What is it with cold and parking this year? Biggirl (?) gets assaulted crossing a lot by some crazy biddy in a Plymouth and has to defend herself with salted peanuts. Another Doper (Chicagoan?) gets their windows battered out after parking in a cleared spot someone else considered theirs. NPR had a story about Bostonians putting tables and candelabras and refrigerators and whatnot along their streets to hold a spot. MPSIMS has a rant right now about someone’s (mis)use of a handicapped space.
Never in previous years was I so consistently confronted with tales of chilly parker malfeasance.
My theory is it’s because humans are acting like rats that are packed too tightly in a cage - you know, all biting and hurting each other. People are acting like it’s every rat for himself out there, baby.
My personal peeve - if it says “NO PARKING” or perhaps “NO STOPPING AT ANY TIME”, that really does mean you, even if you’re “just running in.” Contrary to what your parents may have told you, you aren’t special - you can go park in the lot like the rest of us.
C’mon, what’s wrong with making a few spaces to fit in more small cars? I mean certainly it should be done with the demographic in mind, having them at Home Depot is just rediculous I agree, but in front of Kroger?
When I went to college we had a section of our parking garage with compact spaces that had a limit line. If your car went beyond that you had to use on of the other spots. Given there were only like 10 of these spots and a couple hundred others it seemed like a nice idea to make some room near the entrance. I’m sure there’s some dopers in Davis who know what I’m talking about.
When I am out shopping by myself, I do take the cart back to the drop-off location, or into the store. When, however, I am shopping with my children - which is most of the time - I am extremely loath to leave my children alone in the car, and push the cart back across the parking lot to a drop-off location. Not only is it unsafe, it’s illegal in my state to leave children alone in the car. What I will do is park the cart right in the ‘x’ formed by the paint at the corners of 4 parking spaces. Believe it or not, there’s room - I have pulled into many a parking space where a cart was left in that spot, and my van (not a compact) fits fine and does not get scratched. I do apologise for inconveniences to other people. But the safety of my children is more important to me than the convenience of other drivers.
I semi-agree with you, Chotii . What I do, though, is I park my car next to the little corral that houses the carts in the parking lot. Therefore I can get my kids out of the car, plunk them in the cart, and then go do my shopping. When I’m done, I unload the groceries, then the kids, and the corral is right there for me to return the cart to.
I’d never leave my kids alone in the car, but this way I don’t have to.
It’s not really inconvenience, is it Chotii, but damage to other peoples cars. I mean, you leave it there, and a cross wind comes up - and I have seen still shopping carts start rolling all by themselves and bang! someone’s paint job is marred. And those things are expensive.
I don’t have kids myself, and normally I wouldn’t presume to speak up. However, I know there are several Dopers who do have kids, and who do put the carts away anyway. They have a system, I forget exactly what it is. Ever since I heard that they do it, I don’t really have sympathy for anyone else who thinks it’s OK to ding up my car because it’s only an inconvenience.
Well, of course, so do I - if there’s a space anywhere near those corrals. It’s when there isn’t, that it can become a problem.
Fortunately, we have very little wind here, and the ‘wind blowing a cart across the lot’ argument would rarely come into play at my usual grocery store. I could see it being a problem in other locales.
That’s hardly new or unusual behavior in Chicago. Why do you think Chicagoans have eight kitchen chairs? Four for the kitchen and four for the street. Been that way for decades.
Sorry for the hijack, but doesn’t the furniture in the street simply get stolen? Or run over? I’m amazed that some people will bash out the windshield of a car, but leave the furniture sittingly pristinely in a space.
You know, as soon as I hit “submit”, I realized how this might come across to you. I didn’t mean that you had never thought of this; I was just explaining what I do, and I certainly didn’t mean to offend you.
The furniture is not the kind of stuff that you’d want to steal. You’d find equal or better driving down a few alleys to check out what people are throwing out in the trash.
