I come in here and spend £300 every time, so you will refund my parking!

[protege]

I have a bad feeling every store will begin charging to park in their parking lot, and they'll say "Oh, we have to maintain the lot and keep it upgraded."

The grocery store in Cape May, NJ charges to park in their lot. At one time it was free, but too many idiots would dump their cars...and then walk the 2-3 blocks to the beach...leaving very few spaces for their customers. Needless to say, those idiots were pissed, but oh well. Annoying, since there were always plenty of places to park...if you were prepared to do a little walking, that is

[BlaqueKatt]

I bet the country with the most scs is the US.

I'd put money on it-especially with the "entitlement" attitude I see almost daily working for a cell phone company. A cell phone is a luxury-not a necessity(my husband and I have them as we're never home-but still view them as a luxury item)

[Lace Neil Singer]

You know what gets me about this? You actually have to pay to park at a grocery store? Obviously this is not in the United States, because of the currency mentioned here. I have a bad feeling every store will begin charging to park in their parking lot, and they'll say "Oh, we have to maintain the lot and keep it upgraded."

FYI, the supermarket does not own the car park. The council owns it, and will not sell it to the supermarket. Just thought I'd let you know that. ^^ The council people are also really savage about ticketing. O.o

In any case, unless you're just dawdling round like a moron, it shouldn't take you longer than 2 hours to do your shopping. Even if you do end up paying £2, you're getting £1.20 back so what's the problem?

[Andara Bledin]

What I find most amusing in this thread are all the cries of "oh, that doesn't happen in the US" and stuff. Especially when most of it has been the cause of suckiness on the part of SCs whose stories have been told right here.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

Also in the US you don't pay for the plastic sacks.

No, they just go right to outlawing them! Santa Fe and Taos are both looking at doing this. Gonna be fun for them with all of the tourista business that both survive on!

[smileyeagle1021]

I'd put money on it-especially with the "entitlement" attitude I see almost daily working for a cell phone company. A cell phone is a luxury-not a necessity(my husband and I have them as we're never home-but still view them as a luxury item)

if I may debate that... a phone is a necessity... granted that does not mean it has to be a cell phone but there is no way to make it in this world without at least some form of phone and in many areas it is now becoming cheaper to use a cell than a landline...

however, I really doubt those are the people you've been dealing with

[Primer]

am I the only person here who doesn't mind paying for parking? I mean it is a cost to the store and I'd much rather just have to pay for parking seperate than having it included in the price because that way I can avoid the cost by biking, walking, or taking the bus... included in the price i pay for it whether or not I use it.

IF parking really were charged separately from overhead, that would be one thing, but you know that isn't going to happen. Just like a delivery charge for a pizza--the delivery person doesn't get it--it goes to overhead costs.

A cell phone is a luxury-not a necessity(my husband and I have them as we're never home-but still view them as a luxury item)

The only reason I consider my cell phone to be a necessity is that I live out in the middle of nowhere, and work 43 miles away. Between the time I leave the house at 5:15 a.m. and when I get to work at 6:15 a.m. nothing is open, and it's too dark to see anything/one at the side of the road. If something happens, I need to be able to call for help!

[Skarredmind]

LOL, they ALL spend $300 (Though 300 pounds is closer to 600 USD lol) EVERY week... Its even better when you are working at a place where the average total comes to more than what they are quoting at you.

My sister works at a mountain sports supply store, their average clothing total is around $400, she gets the morons all the time that insist that because they are paying $300 they should get free this or free that because they are *CLEARLY* one of the best customers this store will ever see. My sister used to work collections though and so, is prepared for this kind of crap. It was classic listening to her explain to a SC that this person still had $100 to go before he got into the "average" category, and if he wanted free stuff, he better start thinking about spending at least another $900. SC never knew what hit him the manager told her not to do it again, but was laughing so hard she didn't get in any trouble.

[Tee]

That's a really great way to assure they get their carts back. God knows how many times I'll pass an Albertson's or Publix and I'll see some person walking down the road with a cart from there, literally walking off the property to wheel their groceries home. Then, they don't bother returning it.

I found a cart from my store on my way home.... 4 MILES AWAY!

I would love a system like that, make it 5 dollars though, more incentive. >:3

Course people will still go "Oh, a buck/5 bucks for a cart I can keep? Hells yeah!"

[Lace Neil Singer]

Can we try and keep on topic, people? Like Skarredmind. ^^ Start a topic on abandoned trolleys if you want to discuss it, just don't discuss it here.

And I said a page ago that the council owns the car park, not the supermarket. There are some other branches with free parking, but the main problem with that is idiots who leave their cars in the car park all day, and take up all the space. Hell, the local hospital still has problems with that; and they charge for parking. It's hell getting a space there due to all the selfish arseholes who leave their cars there and then walk down town to shop. -.- Just cuz the hospital charges about 10p less... grrr...

[protege]

Getting back on topic here.. In my grandmother's old town, one of the banks tried to keep non-customer cars out of their parking lot. In their infinite wisdom, they actually hired a security guard to prevent their lot filling up. At the time, the town had a strict policy about on-street parking. Lots of meters all over the place. Several people parked in the bank lot to avoid paying and/or a ticket.

Having a guard didn't work very well. There wasn't much he could really do--by the time the tow truck got there, the stray cars were usually gone. Also, several "well connected" customers actually complained of harassment. Turns out that what they were doing, was parking at the bank, using the banking services...and then walking across the street to pay their phone, or other bills, or even to bail Bubba out of the drunk tank On returning to the lot, they'd get stopped by the guard.

Needless to say, those "well-connected" (politically and socially) people soon threatened to move their accounts. The bank caved, and got rid of the security guard. Now that the town no longer has parking meters (something about too much vandalism and theft...), the problem isn't as bad.

[smileyeagle1021]

Getting back on topic here.. In my grandmother's old town, one of the banks tried to keep non-customer cars out of their parking lot. In their infinite wisdom, they actually hired a security guard to prevent their lot filling up. At the time, the town had a strict policy about on-street parking. Lots of meters all over the place. Several people parked in the bank lot to avoid paying and/or a ticket.

Having a guard didn't work very well. There wasn't much he could really do--by the time the tow truck got there, the stray cars were usually gone. Also, several "well connected" customers actually complained of harassment. Turns out that what they were doing, was parking at the bank, using the banking services...and then walking across the street to pay their phone, or other bills, or even to bail Bubba out of the drunk tank On returning to the lot, they'd get stopped by the guard.

Needless to say, those "well-connected" (politically and socially) people soon threatened to move their accounts. The bank caved, and got rid of the security guard. Now that the town no longer has parking meters (something about too much vandalism and theft...), the problem isn't as bad.

they could always do what the Library Square Burger King does... they have signs at every entrance saying by parking there you agree to their parking contract which states that if at any time you leave the property there will be a $25 fine. Then they have employees watch the parking lot, about every half hour someone from Diamond Parking Services will come by, the employees will point out the cars that need to be ticketed, and DPS will issue the ticket and handle collections (of course keeping their fair share)... and when I used to work for DPS I heard people all the time saying that was the dumbest policy ever that they would never go to that burger king again... which was when I pointed out (remember, I didn't work for burger king so I could get away with this) that they weren't exactly a customer of burger king right now so they didn't lose much. Now, I can understand the people who wanted to drop off a book before having lunch... those people usually could talk to the manager about getting the fee waived but there were people who would park there then go across the street to spend hours on end at the library because they didn't want to pay the (wait for it) 50cents an hour for parking... and that's what it's gone up to... it used to be only like 25cents... and it was too expensive for people... morons

[greensinestro]

I found a cart from my store on my way home.... 4 MILES AWAY!

I have a better one than that. I think it was about a year or so back, I stopped at my local Subway to pick up dinner on the way home. Now, there is a Winn Dixie in the same shopping center as the Subway is in, yet upon closer inspection, the cart said Service Merchandise on it! That company went belly up years ago, and somehow, one of their carts was in this parking lot about three miles from where the Service Merchandise stood. God knows how long it had been there, or perhaps how long it's been "wandering around".