So many people seem to need to park as close to the front door of wherever they’re going into as possible. People will park in handicapped spots, create their own parking spots where there are none, and in the case of my work parking lot, employees park in the “customer” parking spots. At least until security sees them parking there one too many times and issues them a warning.
Why is this? Is it a competitive instinct? Are people just really, really lazy? What’s up with that?
That’s my bet. They don’t want to walk.
In the States, they’re generally lazy. They call us a driving culture for a reason; we’d rather circle the lot like vultures looking for a space a few feet closer to the door than walk those few feet. After visiting Europe, I find it much easier to just park already and hoof it. Let someone else keep circling while I get my shopping done!
They’re lazy, and they’re stupid, too. They’ll wait for somebody who’s leaving to get to a car that’s close (block the way of everyone else), even though it would be faster to just park in a spot that’s farther away and walk the distiance.
No kidding. I went around somebody waiting for a close parking space, parked about 3-4 spots down in the next row, and was inside the store before they were even parked. Some people are just dumbasses.
It might be faster to park further away & hike in, but then they’d have to use their own legs. It’s less work to wait 10 minutes for you to stow your groceries & pull out.
[Homer]
And here I am using my own lungs like a sucker.
[/Homer]
I think mostly it’s habit. People know that a close parking spot is “good” and a far parking spot is “bad.” When you are in a car, you can get kind of zoned out and goal oriented and forget that there is more to parking than simply finding a “good” spot.
I would guess that it’s mostly laziness, but there is an element of competitiveness for some. A former boyfriend’s mother and her gaggle of hens would cluck endlessly about the great parking spaces they’d found. Parking was a competitive sport for them.
Some people are just always in a hurry. Get in fast, shop fast, leave fast. Hurry, hurry, hurry, time is money, get outta my way, my life is more important than yours.
I say it is selfishness.
The funniest thing is when people (including me) try to park as close as possible to the health club, where they are going to intentionally “walk” on a treadmill. :smack:
I think it is pure laziness.
Here in Las Vegas, the best parking spots are not determined by closness, but by how much shade is on the parking spot. 
I admit that I try to find the closest parking space (that’s already open and that’s legal). I do this because I have a two year old who likes to do his walking himself and I try to minimize the time we spend walking through the relatively risky parking lot. Also, on the way out, I’m usually carrying a million things and try to keep the time I’m juggling them and him as short as possible.
When I’m by myself, I park in the first park I see, even if it’s far away.
Well I almost always park farther away than I have to (unless I’m just stopping for four or five minutes). If I am parked close, and I see someone is following me, I keep walking past my car, making them follow me even farther, at which point I walk back to my car, just to piss them off.
It gets worse, folks. I was once trapped behind some guy who waited for another customer to get a jump start just so that he could snag a cushy parking spot near the entrance. Never mind that he could have easily driven to another spot during the time it took for this car to get its engine started.
Good lord, did you say anything or just wait patiently. I would be congenitally incapable of not making an issue of it. There would be much blowing of the horn and creative obscenity. If you were able to wait quietly, you’re made of sterner stuff than I am.
We usually park farther out just because it’s (1) easier to find a spot and (2) easier to get out.
Of course, now that I have a temporarily gimpy foot and am trying to minimize my time on it, we have to go through this absurd game of either Mr. S dropping me at the door and parking, and then picking me up at the door when we’re done, or trying to find a spot close up. I hate having to act like an invalid.
(Tomorrow I’m going back to the gym and having a trainer find me some exercises where I don’t have to put weight on my big toe and the ball of my foot, which are still basically a big open wound. I’m starting to wonder if this thing will ever heal.)
Laziness. Sometimes, going in to buy lots of things, and having to carry all that heavy stuff back out.
Not wanting to walk out to the back of the parking lot alone at night (this one I understand and have done… I work in a mall, people have been robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight).
Since discovering the hell that is parking at my school, I just don’t care about ‘good’ parking spaces anymore. I’ve gotten in the habit of picking a lot, making a quick pass through the front few rows just in case, and if there’s nothing there I go all the way out to the back. Fighting for a parking space just adds more stress to my day, and I have enough of that already. And unlike my work, there’s not really any random assault at school. So now I get exercise instead of road rage. I think it works out pretty well.
As the OP, I just want to say that like RFBlues, I long ago quit fighting for the prime spots and now I park far away for the exercise. Hell, I should be parking in San Diego for all the exercise I get in my daily life.
That story about the guy waiting for the guy that was getting a jump- wow. No wonder Americans are getting fatter, we’re a bunch of lazy asses.
I don’t like door dings, so I’ll circle looking for a curb spot or a spot that is a little wider or one with “good” neighbors.
Or if my arthritis is acting up, I’ll look for a close spot. Less walking in the parking lot is more walking I can do in the store!
No argument there. I will deliberately park further away than I have to if there is shade.