If backing into a parking spot is showing “extraordinary parking ability”, you need to go into a deserted parking lot and practice.
It’s not extraordinary, it’s a basic driving skill.
I try to do this as often as possible. But if I can’t I’ll back in. It’s pretty common up here. It’s much easier to back in, that it is to back out. Something about the angle of the parking lots and snow 8 months out of the year :D. When backing out, you have to deal with all of the cars around you, both in your lane, and in the lane across from where you parked.
Also, with all of the people rolling carts in and out of the parking lot driveways. So, in backing in, you only have to know where two cars are, the two on either side of your spot.
Whereas with backing out of that spot, you’ve got the two on either side, the one directly across from your car, and the two or three on each of his right and left sides.
It’s been my experience, both in waiting for others to back in, and back out, that it takes a hell of a lot longer for some poor SUV to maneuver OUT of a spot that he’d pulled straight into, than if he backs into a spot.
I’ve never seen anyone up here get impatient or upset about someone backing into a spot. Backing OUT yes (talk about your back a few inches, forward and readjust, then back, then forward, and so on ad nauseum). Backing in, IME, most people don’t take all that long.
But then, maybe our parking lots are just weird, or maybe we just have more skiled “backer inners”. 
Exactly.
I recently got a big-ass quad cab Dodge Ram pickup. It’s taken me about a month, but I have learned to back into a parking spot fairly quickly. It’s much easier to back in than to go head first, because of the turning radius of the front end. I can’t seem to get pulled over far enough to be even between the lines. Backing up works for me, and I don’t take forever to get in the spot.
I back in. It’s no more time than pulling into the spot for me, and it does make getting out of the spot easier since I drive a small car and it’s impossible to see when two minivans or SUVs or other large vehicles park next to me. Backing out is just so much more nerve wracking than pulling out forward when everything I must avoid running into is in my normal, front facing field of vision.
It took me a couple of days in an empty parking lot to learn to position my car backward between the parking space lines with the right amount of room on each side in one motion, and now I consider it a basic driving skill.
I must be a slow learner… 
As a former valet, I can attest that backing a car in, once you know how to do it, is always easier. But if it’s a crowded parking lot, I don’t do it, because chances are when you try someone will get too close to you and prevent you from doing it, so I just park forward. But if there are no cars around, I’ll back in. Nothing wrong with showing off my madd parking skillz dawg.
Almost everyone at my work does this. I only do it if I’m moving my car and it’s more convenient.
I think people do it because they’re in more of a hurry to leave than they are to get to work.
At work, I get the best of both worlds. I only park where there are two open spots nose to nose, then pull in forward all the way through two spots. Then I merely pull forward to leave, not having to back up in either case. I also do this at the supermarket.
I do back in occasionally. I never bother when I’m going shopping or anything like that; in truth, the only time I back in is when I go to a play or sporting event. Backing in at those sorts of events, when everyone in attendance will most likely be trying to leave at the same time, makes getting out SO much easier. If you pull in straight, you’re at the mercy of others when you attempt to back out, and there are usually too many parking lot pedestrians and cars to back out easily and safely. Better to just back in when I get there, so I can just zoom straight out when the show’s over.
The asshat who used to live across the street from me not only backed into his driveway and garage, but also mowed the lawn diagonally; another way to show off without really impressing anyone.
Really? There are a lot o parking lots in Toronto with signs telling you that you are supposed to back into s spot if you are in their lot.
It’s to cut down on accidents that occur when people back out to go home. When you pull out to leave, they prefer it if you are in a better position to see other cars that may be driving in the aisle. E.g/ If you’re parked between two SUVs you can’t tell if there are other cars driving down the aisle until you’re about 2/3 out.
So fuck you right back. I’m just following the posted rules.
Your neighbor may have been an asshat for other reasons, but pulling forward into a driveway or garage in Ohio between the months of November and May is the sign of a drooling doofus. Once the blizzard hits, trying to back one’s car through the drifts is a sure way to lose the car in the front yard. You need a running start to get out onto the street on those days you haven’t time to scrape the driveway.
Didn’t we do this in hilarious mop-the-entrails-off-the-walls style a while ago?
Me, too. 
I always back into parking spaces. I also usually park farther out in the lot so I’m not slowing anyone else down or blocking traffic while I do it, either.
I also have to back into my garage at home. The “driver’s side” of the garage has big storage cabinets and makes it nearly impossible to open the car doors on that side of the garage, so I always have to back down the driveway (the garage is set back and behind the house) and into the garage. Backing in is very easy for me. I don’t need to spend a lot of time (as mentioned in the OP) doing it. I can just whip right in.
Again, exactly!
If backing in is that hard for you, you should figure out to make it easier.
I never back into spaces, but to echo what some others have mentioned, there is definitely something to be said for being able to freaking see when exiting the parking space. Very rarely these days is there not some goddamned huge thing parked next to me and blocking my view on at least one side. When backing out I just have to hope that I don’t hit anything and that nothing hits me until I’m two-thirds of the way out, where I can actually see more than three feet beyond me.
That said, attempting to back into the space would be too much of a hassle. Somehow I never manage to park straight when pulling in forward (not causing trouble to those parked next to me, just a bit crooked), and I’m sure it would be worse if I tried to back in.
I’ve always hated the backing in folks. I always felt that they were spending 2 minutes to save 10 seconds. Like the people who go around and around the parking lot for 5 minutes so that they can get the spot that’s 30 seconds closer to the store. But some of the arguments here are making me reconsider. Just reconsider, mind you.
Good question, Chairman Pow!
I once asked this question here as well:
I’ve also noticed that a lot of the people who back into spaces like to do so along the perimeter of the parking lot, as if to display the fact that they skillfully backed in and didn’t just pull forward through a space. Furthermore, in my experience, many of the people who do this seem to be driving the more attention-grabbing vehicles.
Oddly, whenever I’m backing out of a space, the oncoming car ALWAYS stop once they see my back-up lights come on. I just start backing out and have never needed to wait for traffic to clear.
Either way requires backing up – either while going in or going out. One way lets you cut a tighter corner, and that same way gives you a better chance at seeing cars and people traveling down the lane. Not a hard decision to make here.
In Japan, most parking buildings require you to back in. You can get a ticket if you don’t!