How to get back at parking space stalkers

[symposes]

At the campus i work at, there is alot of parking you can pay for.
Also one of the streets that connects to the parkinglot we use for our work vehicles, has alot of metered parking
People will sit and block the road for along time waiting for a parking space on the street, because they dont want to/cant afford a parking pass.
I know a couple guys in the shop, that will get behind them and just start blasting the horn til they move. And i dont blame them, that road is only wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass, if there are cars parked on both sides, and when your in a work vehicle that is wider then most vehicles, IE a bucket truck. You cant get around them without taking someone's mirror.

[South Texan]

I am glad so far, no one has pulled one of your tricks on me. What is so bad about wanting a parking spot?

I also fail to see what was bad about someone following a person coming out of a store in hopes of getting a closer parking space. How does that affect you if you are the one going to the car? It is not as if the person is attacking you or trying to take something from you. The parking lot and space do not belong to you. We complain on this board about customers being rude, selfish and mean to employees and other customers, so why the desire to be sadistic or cruel to people wanting a parking space?

[iradney]

I also fail to see what was bad about someone following a person coming out of a store in hopes of getting a closer parking space. How does that affect you if you are the one going to the car? It is not as if the person is attacking you or trying to take something from you. The parking lot and space do not belong to you. We complain on this board about customers being rude, selfish and mean to employees and other customers, so why the desire to be sadistic or cruel to people wanting a parking space?

I think it's only when people are childish about it, like yelling at you for parking too far away or something

[Banrion]

To clarify from my perspective, I don't hassle the people who are driving around looking for a spot, and see me start my car. It's the people who purposely sit by the front door of the store, and then drive behind you so closely they are bumping your heels. Then when you get to your car they position themself so that they are half blocking you in and in such a way as to prevent all other traffic from coming within 100 feet of the oh so precious spot. I don't like to be followed, and I HATE to be rushed, and never has this happened to me in an actually full lot, it's always in a 75% empty lot on Sunday mornings when I get out early to get things done and end up parking in one of the 1st 2 rows at BB.

[greensinestro]

I also fail to see what was bad about someone following a person coming out of a store in hopes of getting a closer parking space. How does that affect you if you are the one going to the car? It is not as if the person is attacking you or trying to take something from you. The parking lot and space do not belong to you. We complain on this board about customers being rude, selfish and mean to employees and other customers, so why the desire to be sadistic or cruel to people wanting a parking space?

Everyone, there is nothing really that bad about it, except I live in South Florida, and the oldie-goldie, wrinkly skinned, blue-haired snowbirds are the ones that cause problems with this. They literally drive right on your ass as you're walking to your car and give you these angry looks when you aren't moving fast enough, or they really get mad at you when they discover you've parked too far away for them to walk. I don't mind someone waiting for me to leave, but these people don't have to be so rude and ugly about it.

[Becks]

Ha ha. I miss the good old days when my Mommy had her Geo Metro wedged up against the cart corral. Fun times.

[SuperDan]

As someone who frequently works outside on carts (actually I prefer carts over most of the other jobs I'm trained for, as there's far less manager and SC BS happening outside, and I've let most of management know this), I witness this phenomenon quite frequently, and it can get pretty ugly.

One situation, one that may sound a bit outlandish but I've actually seen happen, is that a spot stalker sees a customer leaving the store and begins following said customer in her monstrosity of an SUV. The customer leaving the store has two full carts, so it's probably going to be a while unloading. This doesn't phase the stalker, they'll wait. Meanwhile, someone intending to go to an open spot further down or exit the lot or something turns down the row the spot stalker is blocking. This person can't really get around the spot stalker, who is parked in the center of the aisle with her blinker on, waiting for the customer with the huge order to leave. So now we have a third car involved. Another car falls in behind that car, this time unable to complete the turn into the aisle. Oops, now we're blocking the main drive across the front of the store. With a few cars piled up in each direction, it's not out of the question for them to be blocking the aisles on either side of the aisle with Spot Stalker in it from getting into the main drive. So cars are now piled up in three different aisles plus the main drive, all because Spot Stalker is unwilling to drive seven spots further and take an empty one. And imagine the frustration involved when the customer being stalked finishes unloading their carts into their car, then proceeds to walk to another of the many businesses in our complex? Movie Gallery's doors are directly across the parking lot from ours, so it's not uncommon for people to park in one spot to shop at both. Across the main parking lot entrance from them is Walgreens, and right next to us in the strip mall is Family Dollar, so there are lots of places the customer could be going that doesn't really justify the need to move the car.

At work we employees aren't allowed to park anywhere directly in front of our store when we are there for a shift (except midnights). I usually take this a step further and park in the far corner of the lot. Even when I come in as a customer, I park toward the southeast corner of the lot during the day, or if it's particularly dead like at night I'll park in front of the doors but still further south, closer to Movie Gallery. A parking spot isn't worth fighting over, and my fat ass needs the walk anyway.

I occasionally do wait for a spot at school, but only because parking is a tight commodity there. I don't want to be leaving at night and have to walk to the other side of campus where I was forced to park in the grass beyond one of the more remote parking lots. Normally I try to time my arrival on campus to be about the time the 2:30-3:45 classes are letting out, and all but once so far this semester I've been able to get a spot on the far side of the first row (the close side is professor parking until 4:30, I get there just before 4), and once I even managed to get right in front of the door. I don't follow people out though, if I do get there early I park in 30 minute parking until I see the flood of people leaving, then leisurely drive back over to that row and usually somebody is pulling out.

[Dips]

My favorite parking spot stalker made her appearance in the hospital parking garage. We arrived very early for my son's pre-op and go a space right next to the elevator. The entire rest of that level of the garage was empty.

We had to unload luggage from the trunk, our son from his car seat and open a stroller. We did all that in the space right next to us.

I didn't think twice when a another car turned the corner onto our level. Every other space was empty.

But the lady wanted the space next to ours, put on her signal and waited. Unfortunately we didn't really notice because we simply wouldn't expect that kind of stupidity.

I guess another car crept up behind her and couldn't go around. The second driver beeped.

That's when we looked up and saw original lady sitting there. We didn't know WHY she was sitting there, so we bent back to work.

Next thing she does is roll down her window, "Excuse me! Are you planning to let me park or what?!"

So we looked up again and it was the lady addressing us.

My husband looked around the empty garage and pointed to the empty space just to the other side of the space we were using, "Why don't you park there?" His tone was gentle, mild and genuinely puzzled.

She did park in the third space and on her way to the elevator she gave us a parting, "It would have been nice if you had let me know ahead of time that I was going to have to walk." [What? Six feet?]

We just looked at her with puzzled expressions and wished her a nice day. What else can you do?

The kicker was that we saw the lady later and she was a nurse in the hospital. Not our son's, luckily. I bet the real issue was that we took "her" spot.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I'll admit that I'll wait behind someone if I can see that they've got one bag to put away and there's literally no spots to be had, but other than that, I'm not particular as to where I park. I mostly just like to be in the aisle straight up from the door so I know to just walk straight, and even if I'm at a far end, I'm okay with that. I didn't lose my legs in the war, as my mother would say.

I really made some lady mad once last summer. Me, my mom and dad, and a neighbor/family friend "D" were in town doing some shopping, including buying me a new bed and mattress. Well, we didn't want to haul the bulky box with the bed in it around every which way in the store, so we decided we'd buy it first and then go back for the rest of our groceries. Halfway out, we also decided that we didn't want to risk anyone stealing the $200 bed frame, so we decided when we put it in the back of D's truck, I was going to sit in the bed with it and stand guard.

Just by sheer luck, D had happened to get a prime parking spot...right by the door, two spaces away. So, we bought the frame, and took it outside to the truck, and an upper middle-aged woman in a bright red sports car slammed her brakes and started waiting.

Well, I asked my dad about her, and he basically shrugged it off, since there were spots literally all over the place. So, we loaded up the bed frame, adjusted it so I had a spot to sit, I climbed up and settled into the back with the frame as a shade (it IS Texas and it was summer, after all). Then, they took the cart and headed back into the store. I sat where I was...as did Mrs. Red.

I looked at her. She looked at me, then at my parents' retreating backs. Two cars lined up behind her. She looked back at me. I kept staring at her. One of the other cars honked, she flipped them off. Finally, obviously irritated, she rolled her window down to yell at me.

"When are you going to leave?!"

"I don't know. My parents are still buying groceries. It'll probably be a while."

"WELL THAT'S JUST RUDE!!" She flung her window back up, screeched her tires peeling out of the parking lot, and JUST missed careening into a patrolling police car that was coming through the parking lot (this particular store happens to have a small branch of the local police department built in). Seriously, we're not even talking inches. And then...THEN. Mrs. Red HONKED HER HORN AT THE POLICE CAR.

Well, they directed her off to a far side of a street, and I definitely saw some ticketing being done. And then, bonehead of boneheads, she gets back in her car and starts screeching her tires again, trying to take off. This time, I don't know precisely what happened after because they were a fair bit away and my folks came out soon, but she did wind up in back of the police car and the two cops were still digging around her car when we drove by to leave.

THOSE are the sorts of people that need revenge to be took. Particularly amusing since for once, I didn't actually DO anything, I just sort of sat there passively and watched the world go by...

[BookstoreEscapee]

I usually do the same, excep for sometimes, I walk around pretending to look for my vehicle

Usually, I AM looking for my vehicle...

[protege]

I usually don't have a problem with people wanting a spot. However, if they're following me so closely I can see their reflection in my glasses, well, I *do* have a problem with that. What if I fall in the lot? Would they be able to stop before they run me over? I also don't like it when they start blasting their horns that I'm not moving quickly enough. Don't like the wait? There are a million other spots in the lot--go pick one.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Dips, I think I might have had to suggest to that woman that she might want to f k off.

[Dips]

Dips, I think I might have had to suggest to that woman that she might want to f k off.

Heh. Let's just say that I have a talent for making "Have a nice day" sound almost exacly like "F off."

Even though that happened five years ago, we still have a good time with it:

In parking lots: "Honey! We just walked past a space twelve feet closer than the one we parked in. We should go back to the car and move it here so we don't have to walk so far."

At home: "What do you mean the remote is on the coffee table two feet in front of me? Why didn't you tell me I'd have to walk?"

At the gas station: "OK. Just so you know. You're going to have to walk to the gas pump. It's a good foot from the car."

We're weirdos.

[DesignFox]

Being a mall worker, I can attest to the fact that there are times where you have NO CHOICE but to circle like a vulture until you can follow someone to a parking spot. So I really don't mind when someone does that to me...I also, as an employee who needs to get to work on time, appreciate when someone waves me toward their spot as they leave.

What I agree with everyone on- I hate when people crawl up my butt. I have not yet had someone honk at me while I was walking, but I think I would kick their ass if they did. That is RUDE. I HAVE had someone honk at me after I climbed in my car- which is also extremely RUDE- so I took my sweet ass time and did about a thousand things until they went away. I don't abide people being RUDE, and I react accordingly.

When people nicely follow behind, but aren't pushy, I will leave in a timely manner, or even wave them over so they can park when I leave. I have had people do this for me, and since I waited patiently instead of giving them dirty looks, they were happy to help me out. simple.

[Ciarrai]

I get nervous when people start following me to my spot. I'm a bit of a cautious driver since I totalled my car a few years ago, so I'm always paranoid that I won't back up enough to get out or something. And when people get right on my tail to wait for my spot, I will not hesitate to just sit in my car until they leave. I don't need to rush myself and end up causing damage to my or someone else's car just because someone else wants the convienence of my spot.