Unlike regular people, I rarely buy groceries for a week, much to the dismay of my wife. No, I’m more of a “go to Kroger every day to get two things” kind of guy, and not just because I enjoy the car spotting or that I’m hoping to catch a fresh Hot Wheels restock. Most recently, I was popping in daily to see if Good & Plenty was back in the candy aisle. It was out for like a week.
The thing about Good & Plenty is … no, wait, I’m getting off track. As a frequent flyer at Kroger (and Walmart and Home Depot, typically), I get to enjoy a wide variety of parking spaces and observe the parking skills of others.
Like you, I try to be a respectful parker. I take care not to overlap into the spot across from me, I make sure there’s sufficient door-opening space for whoever will climb into the car to my right, and if only because not doing so would bug me, I do my very best to make sure my car is perfectly parallel with the lines. Surely something bad will happen if I’m not parallel. And of course, I don’t park in handicapped spaces or pregnant-lady spaces and the like, as long as they seem reasonable. If I’m in a super hurry, I may take the Employee Of The Month’s space, because I think someone of EOTM temperament would surely be looking out for me, the customer.
Some people, however, just can’t seem to park well. Maybe they lack the skill, or they don’t care that much, or maybe they were just trying to get out of their car, into the store, and safely to the restroom as quickly as possible – in which case, Godspeed. No matter the reason, crummy parking doesn’t bother me much. My maximum response is an eye-roll, perhaps? A bemused head-shake?
Some people, on the other hand, go crazy. Over the line a little? Rear end sticking out a bit too much? Up goes a photo and accompanying screed on Facebook. Maybe an outraged TikTok or Reel is uploaded right there from the cart corral. There’s one guy Instagram’s algorithm keeps foisting on me who keeps an array of dickish stickers in his car so he can shame poor parkers, roasting them contemptuously as the deleterious decal is applied. Gee whiz, lighten up.
… Or don’t? Should I be getting angrier? I certainly don’t love it when someone else’s bad parking makes it all but impossible for me to get into my car. And when some knob parks his car diagonally across two spots to “protect” it (and in an active part of the lot, not the outskirts, mind you), for sure: screw that guy. But the rest? Life is short, and I don’t know their story.
You tell us: How Worked Up Do You Get Over People Parking Poorly?
Top graphic: depositphotos.com
I get mildly irritated when someone parks at the edge of a,spot or angled so it’s harder for me to get in or out. I get majorly irritated at taking up two spots. Back in New York in the 90s I called it Guido parking when the Italian stud parked his 4 cylinder Camaro RS diagonally across two spots.
Well it seems like no one got the right answer. The correct answer for bad parking is pick up at any elementary school. You will not find a greater collection of self-centered cunts than pick up at an elementary school.
Park blocking a neighbors driveway. Check
Park in the middle of the road. Check
Park in front of the fire hydrant. Check
Park in a crosswalk. Check
Park 3ft from the curb. Check
Park in the red. Check
Seriously. If you want to see the worst parking known to man, go to your local elementary school at pick up.
Obviously you don’t realize that each of those people is the only person in the world who matters.
A while ago I saw a car parked in a very crowded parking lot, and this narcissist had parked diagonally, deliberately taking two parking spaces instead of one.
So I slashed two of his tires. As in : knife blade all the way through the sidewall of the tire, so it’s non-repairable.
Fuck him, and if you park like this, fuck you too.
See, a note does exactly nothing when these jerkoffs park like this. But coming back to his car to find two flat tires, that’s something the guy will never forget and chances are he won’t park that way any more. This means the world is now a slightly better place.
Capisce ?
Depends. I can roll my eyes and move on when it comes to a plain bad park job, but I get more worked up about deliberately bad ones.
My apartment parking deck I got annoyed easily because spaces were at a premium. But especially when people parked on a line or angled weird that affects my approach in, in the few remaining spots. I get that barriers and things made it trickier, but just because you didn’t try to accommodate spots around you doesn’t mean I’m not going to take the empty spot. A parking space is included in each of our rents, if I can fit I’m taking it. I have taken a pic of a plate and park job, just to have in case I came out to a scrape. Fortunately never did.
Some of our office parking spaces are tight, and it’s a bit of a gamble on how many will be available at a given time as there’s a couple medical offices in the building. A Mustang was taking up two spots regularly (so an employee somewhere) – I mentioned it in our work chat, and enough people were also annoyed that it was mentioned to the property manager who sent out an email to all tenants.
Last night at the gym a car parked on a curb in a thru-way and I did consider leaving a note on it. They’re doing renovations that have part of the lot closed, so yeah fewer spaces – but your time isn’t more valuable than anyone else’s to park illegally.
We got snow in the ATL last weekend – a rare occurrence. I went to the grocery store (probably to buy extra bread and milk). The parking lot was completely covered with snow so I couldn’t see the lines. I just “pulled in” to a spot parallel to the other cars. When I got out of the car to walk inside, I was MORTIFIED to see that I was parked across two parking spots! :0
Did I get back in to re-park? No I didn’t… I just blamed it on the snow.
I park in a city-owned garage at work and it’s a tight fit even on a good day.
On any given morning I have to go through an obstacle course littered with oversized trucks shoehorned into spots intended for compact cars that jut out into the two-way ramp we all have to use to navigate the building.
That’s made even worse when people double park.
There should be an ordinance that requires oversized trucks to park on the upper deck, which is also a good place to take up an extra spot if you’re worried about dings in your paint.
The bottom line: Have some consideration for your fellow drivers.
“…I don’t know their story.”
I do, They don’t know how to park. Ignorance is no excuse. Learn how to drive your car folks!
I mostly get mad about if I park poorly, because I have to get in and redo it. I will not leave a poor parking job. I’m glad I have the 360 camera in my truck or I’d never be able to get that thing just right in a spot. At least with my small summer cars, there is much more tolerance.
Me!!
Most of the time it only causes me to sigh and roll my eyes, but it really pisses me off at Costco, because there is no excuse for bad parking at my Costco. The parking spaces there are huge, like you could park an F-450 in there and still have room huge. Then some asshole in a 15 year old Altima parks crookedly about 3/4 of the way in the spot. That tells me that no matter how much you hold someone’s hand and give them an opportunity to succeed, someone will always find a way to half ass anything. I never do anything about it though.
Bonus: I only shop at Costco now, I don’t buy gas there anymore. I realized that life is too short to waste waiting 15 minutes to buy gas with a bunch of smooth-brained inconsiderate individuals who will happily sit in their car for more than a minute after pumping their gas to do who knows what. The last time that happened it made me so angry that I realized I didn’t want to end up in a courtroom or jail over trying to save $0.40 a gallon. I now happily gas up at whatever gas station suits my fancy, cost be damned. It’s surprisingly nice to be able to waltz up to a pump and not have to wait for anyone.
You must have a bad Costco. The ones around here have long hoses so you can fill up no matter what side the filler is on your car. Plus lights so you know what pumps are open. Now the morons still will wait in line to get a pump on the proper side, but that makes it so easy to cruise in and fill up.
I generally just feel sorry for lack of skill.
For those that are obviously taking two spots because they are deserving of whatever mean things people think up, I’ll throw my hat into the ring. You know those industrial zip ties that HVAC people use? I’ll marry a shopping cart to one of their door handles using said zip ties. Those cars with electronic door handles are a little more of a challenge, but there is always something to attach to.
It is especially funny when they have nothing to cut it off with. Any damage is only the result of how they try to get it off. One guy gave the shopping cart a good kick, but it swung around and crashed into his door. Another guy gave the cart a good pull. It came off along with his door handle.
Great idea!
Now there will be a run on zip ties over at Harbor Freight.
I live in Florida. Everyone parks poorly here.
I live in an inner-city neighborhood, and ever since the city gave up enforcing anything during the pandemic, street parking is a mix of cars pointing whichever way they decided to pull in. The city claims they’re back to ticketing this kind of behavior (in addition to lapses in registration), but so far I haven’t seen anything. But to answer your question, I get worked up
I don’t tend to care much about people’s parking skills (or lack thereof) unless they get too close to my car.
There is no reason to be within an inch of my bumper in a parallel parking situation.
Give people some breathing room. If there’s only mere inches on either side of your car after you’re done parking, the spot wasn’t big enough for you to begin with.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qinBXcYJYtCnh48J9
It doesn’t upset me but definitely gives me a lower opinion of whoever’s driving it.
My favorite are the ones that back their hatchbacks in at the grocery store, like you’re going to come out of the store with however many bags of groceries for the week for the family, and the entire point of the big hatchback is defeated cause it’s backed up to some guy that pulled in as close as he could making it tougher to load.(it’s me, I’m the guy that pulled as close as I could to their car.)
Maybe that’s why EVs with frunks are more popular?
Clearly nobody in these comments lives in a city.
I’d conjecture the parking situation in a suburban strip mall is WAY worse.
Clearly you think that living in a city justifies acting like an asshole. Most likely because you ARE an asshole.
The only thing that gets me mad anymore is when I park far out of the way to purposely be by myself and some jackoff comes and parks right next to me.
If I’m in the F350, it’s usually that person’s loss, but when I’m in the Viper, it makes me irrationally angry.
I feel you, I park in the back to avoid the 24 hours of LeMall and people still park next to me like there isn’t a bagillion empty spaces closer.
“24 hours of LeMall?” I love it!
If and only if “do I need to call a tow truck?” Becomes a serious question.
https://imgur.com/yG4NDxy
I draw the line at incompetence vs malice. If they just did a bad job, I don’t care. If they park clearly across 2 spaces, that makes me angry.
As I get older, I’m becoming more zen about morons and their lack of ability. Generally a head shake and I’m moving on. I do have a good friend who has gone the other way and launches screeds complete with photos on the Meta platforms.
It’s reached the point where I have the old man yelling at cloud meme on constant standby for when he posts.
You doing nothing allows the bad behavior to continue.
This makes you an accessory to the bad behavior. And your friend is not much better, whining like a little bitch on Zucktardbook.