Parking vs. Small Car
Davezilla.com (’Clean Humor, Filthy Comments’) is a fun spot on the Web. Featuring either a photo, a comment, or list of notes, visitors are invited to expand or explain. Only most of us take a rather nasty perspective. Done in fun, perhaps a little venting.
Today is a picture of an H2 Hummer in a parking space labeled for ‘Small Cars’ in Royal Oak, MI.
A visit to Jenny Craig Diet Centers some years ago opened my eyes to something I had never considered. We don’t walk much. And one strategy for change is to park at the far corner of the parking lot, instead of contending for the spot closest to the store door. Now, I don’t think this strategy works all that much better than the rest of the program did for me, but I do park at the far edge of where people are parking. I tend to wander a few extra aisles in whichever store I visit, so the extra distance doesn’t bother me. And I don’t get the stress others seem to find in their goal of parking closer to the store. I can walk past a lot of car spaces in a minute, a minute longer for the stop isn’t going to unduly influence my day. I usually find myself thinking over purchases, choices, planning how to load my car, or consider my next errand. The time spent from the store to the car certainly isn’t wasted. Even when the weather is rotten, one or two extra minutes may be more uncomfortable than just a few seconds, but again won’t really change my day.
There will be no one to recognize that I parked close to the store or not.
I grew up watching Dad trying to park close to the store. When Mom drove, she absolutely parked not one space further out that she had to. Still does. I think for Dad it was a gesture of care — wanted to gift Mom with a bit less effort, as a gesture of affection. For Mom, though, there was more a sense that the ‘right’ way was to park close. Possibly there is an element of ‘less exposure to attack’ in dark or bad neighborhoods, but that shouldn’t apply in daylight or shopping malls.
By parking farther out, I see, and say ‘Hello!’ to, more people. I see more kids and parents interacting. I get a chance to grab a cart to use and save someone else from having to push it to the store. And the people needing a close spot have one less competitor.
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