Wherein Irv cheeses off a parking space stalker

[Sheldonrs]

TAWANDA!!!

[Hyndis]

I remember hearing about a study, I believe by Walmart, that basically found that the die-hard parking vultures tend to take longer to get into the store than someone who parks way out in the lot where there's plenty of space. By something like 3-4 times. The laid back types would often park, enter the store, shop, exit and drive off BEFORE the vultures found a spot!

I wouldn't at all be surprised.

Parking lots aren't all that big. Even the largest parking lot might take a full minute at the very most to walk across. Then consider the time taken waiting for someone in the front few rows to come back to their car and the vulture to nap that spot...but rarely is the vulture first in line to grab it, so they wait and wait and wait for more and more people to finish their shopping, completely ignoring all of those empty spaces because they're "too far away" or some other hogwash like that.

My mother is a parking lot vulture. Drives me insane every time.

[MadMike]

I remember hearing about a study, I believe by Walmart, that basically found that the die-hard parking vultures tend to take longer to get into the store than someone who parks way out in the lot where there's plenty of space. By something like 3-4 times. The laid back types would often park, enter the store, shop, exit and drive off BEFORE the vultures found a spot!

I believe it.

My ex, who was lazy as hell, would pretty much force me to be a vulture. I'd find a space and go to pull into it, and she'd say, "Park closer!" So I'd circle around the lot looking for something closer, and a lot of the time, I couldn't. The one time she had me looking for a particularly long time, I told her, "You, we could have been in and out of there by now if you had just let me take the first spot I saw!"

Of course, the icing on the cake was that she was always complaining about being fat, but refused to do a little extra walking.

[otakuneko]

Oughta make her try an park at my uni. She'd be circling from 9 til two or three at least!

[MoxisPilot]

I only mind parking lot stalkers when I see at least three other spaces nearby, as was the case in the OP.

...I always take longer to load up, and I usually take my sweet time getting in, buckling up, rolling down the windows, tuning the radio, folding up my sunshade.

And believe me, I can be slooooow.

I've only had one person stick around after the whole show to take my spot.

Now, if the parking lot's jam packed, and I see someone waiting for my spot, I'll hurry, and I'll back out in the other direction so no one can zoom in and steal the spot they've been waiting on.

[Broomjockey]

...I always take longer to load up, and I usually take my sweet time getting in, buckling up, rolling down the windows, tuning the radio, folding up my sunshade.

And believe me, I can be slooooow.

In addition to the "It's faster to park further" study, there's a similar one that addresses that behaviour. MP, you're far from alone. Apparently people who's space is being vultured can take 2-3x longer to leave, on average. You know, the studies probably help explain each other...

[Primer]

On the flip side, does anyone else get a little annoyed with people that walk down the direct center of a parking lot aisle instead of one side or another?

This is the ONLY time I'll follow someone in a parking lot.

I'll play vulture in one of two situations:
1. I'm having a REALLY bad hip day and canNOT walk very far, but I MUST accomplish whatever I am there for (extremely rare).
2. There really are no available parking spaces, even in the outlying areas (even rarer).

I prefer to procrastinate if I'm hurting that bad, or if the traffic is that bad. There is very little that would make me brave either situation.

[protege]

And believe me, I can be slooooow.

I do that occasionally as well, especially if they start honking. My feeling is, if they're that desperate for a spot, they can wait. If not, there are literally *thousands* of spaces to choose from. Either wait, or pick one. Don't want to do that? Fine, fuck off

Not long ago, some asshole actually got upset with me because I took too long. Never mind that I had to help my 91-year-old grandmother not only get into the car, but fold up her wheelchair as well. (She sometimes takes that if she's tired--she can walk OK, but doesn't do well on uneven surfaces.) This twit started blasting his horn, so I gave him the "Pittsburgh Salute"

[AccountingDrone]

I'm not sure I necessarrily agree that all parking space stalkers are bad. At my university, you pretty much have a 'license to hunt' with the parking permit. That is all the parking permit is - it does not guarantee a space at all. I have stalked, but not in a rude way, I give the parked car plenty of space(and all other traffic) to leave, and always wave and smile my thanks.

I very rarely get stalked, I am handicapped and park in a sort of reserved space.