Exploring the Shopping Malls: Avoiding the Parking Lot Madness

[Moonbear]

I'm off to brave the shopping malls! I didn't even leave the house yesterday, but they were showing aerial views of the parking lots of all the local malls on the news yesterday (great use of the traffic helicopters), and a few of the malls didn't look so bad. There were more open parking spaces in the shot than cars circling for them, so I'm going to brave it. I'm usually amazed a people's laziness when it comes to parking lots. They'll circle three aisles for 20 min looking for a spot to free up close to the doors, when I can just head out to the back of the lot, park immediately, and be in the store and shopping before they even get into a space. What are you going to do in the mall anyway? Walk around carrying all your bags! So what's the big deal of a few extra steps in the parking lot? People in this city have no concept of a full parking lot. When I lived in NJ, the one mall truly had a FULL parking lot. There'd be two or three cars circling in every aisle there, with not an open space to be found anywhere. You just had to try your luck of being in the right place at the right time as someone else pulled out. Even the most remote areas of the parking lots there were completely filled.

If I don't return, I got stampeded by the maniacs running for the sale items.

 

[Kerrie]

I am waiting till December 24th...

 

[jimmy p]

Why is there a sale? Why would you be worried about parking?

 

[jimmy p]

...oh... Christmas... that old chestnut.

I have no idea what I want or what to get anyone. It's going to be empty under jimmy's tree this year.

 

[Moonbear]

Why is there a sale? Why would you be worried about parking?

Oh, here we just celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, which has traditionally become the kicking off point of the Christmas holiday season. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year (most people have that day off from work) and all the stores have big sales to kick off the holiday shopping over this weekend. The malls are usually packed full from now until Christmas.

 

[Moonbear]

I am waiting till December 24th...

LOL! Sorry Kerrie, I think they only let men in the stores on Dec 24. And parents still frantically hunting for the latest Elmo toy.

 

[Math Is Hard]

you can just order my gift online, Moonbear.
I would like one of those aluminum-foil hats.

 

[Evo]

I HATE those lazy people that hold everyone else up so they can try to get 5 feet closer to the front door. I REALLY HATE the ones that see someone approaching their car so they stop in the middle of the aisle holding up everyone else behind them for ten minutes. They make sure they're smack dab in the middle so it's impossible to drive around them. I think during the holiday season it should be considered justifiable homicide to drag these idiots out of their cars and beat them to death with a tire iron.

 

[matthyaouw]

Christmas? Bah, humbug! It's November still. Wake me again december 15th, and maybe then I'll start to consider doing some shopping.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We do almost all of our shopping online. The ACME Frozen Broccoli Company now has a webpage.

 

[Math Is Hard]

We do almost all of our shopping online. The ACME Frozen Broccoli Company now has a webpage.

LOL!
Twas the night before Christmas at Ivan and Tsu's,
The pets were all settled for a long winter snooze.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that some broccoli would soon be placed there.

 

[Evo]

LOL!
Twas the night before Christmas at Ivan and Tsu's,
The pets were all settled for a long winter snooze.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that some broccoli would soon be placed there.

Excellent MIH!

 

[Math Is Hard]

Thanks, Evo. You are sure looking festive for the holidays!

 

[Gokul43201]

Twas the night before Christmas at Ivan and Tsu's,
The pets were all settled for a long winter snooze.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that some broccoli would soon be placed there.[/I]

When Tsu awoke next morning, and reached into the sock
She screamed, gagged and screamed again, with a look of abject shock.
Said she " This time, you've gone too far, Ivan, you rotten punk."
For nestled in the stocking was a dirty, smelly skunk.

 

[Kerrie]

When Tsu awoke next morning, and reached into the sock
She screamed, gagged and screamed again, with a look of abject shock.
Said she " This time, you've gone too far, Ivan, you rotten punk."
For nestled in the stocking was a dirty, smelly skunk.

skunks and broccoli...can you truly wish for a more smelly christmas present??

 

[Math Is Hard]

When Tsu awoke next morning, and reached into the sock
She screamed, gagged and screamed again, with a look of abject shock.
Said she " This time, you've gone too far, Ivan, you rotten punk."
For nestled in the stocking was a dirty, smelly skunk.

ha ha ha! Wonderful!

 

[Moonbear]

I HATE those lazy people that hold everyone else up so they can try to get 5 feet closer to the front door. I REALLY HATE the ones that see someone approaching their car so they stop in the middle of the aisle holding up everyone else behind them for ten minutes. They make sure they're smack dab in the middle so it's impossible to drive around them. I think during the holiday season it should be considered justifiable homicide to drag these idiots out of their cars and beat them to death with a tire iron.

LOL! I agree!

So, everyone, I made it back. This was an amazingly efficient Thanksgiving weekend Christmas shopping adventure! Pulled into the mall at about 6 PM (stopped at a toy store first...it's an older store and they have a shiny new one in the mall, so I thought the older one would be less crowded, and I was right). The hardest part of getting into the mall was the one traffic light just before the mall that was insanely LONG for the opposing traffic. But, once in, the first aisle I turned into had a ton of spaces open (I think most people were heading home for dinner because there was a long line of cars leaving the mall). This mall only recently reopened with lots of new stores, so the longest part of the shopping adventure was that I had to walk through the whole mall just to find out what stores are in it now. No lines in any of the stores. It's now a little before 9 PM and I'm already home and relaxing. I have to get one more gift, but I was running out of space to hang bags on my arm (and I REALLY HATE stores in malls that don't have handles on their bags, and it's always the one with the biggest item, so I can't stuff it in another bag).

I'm going to SPOIL my nephew rotten this year! He's 1 1/2, so this year actually knows what Christmas is, so I wanted to get lots of things for him to open...all individually wrapped of course! And those little kid toys are just so fun looking. Not quite the same as when we were kids. Now they make weebles big enough that you can't swallow them. I was going to get him a tricycle thing (like the Big Wheels we had as kids)...there are lot more choices of those now...but decided he's probably not quite old enough to peddle yet, so I'll save that for his birthday. I can't wait until he's three and I can buy all the stuff that's for 3 and older (because I want to play with it). It's so fun to have a reason to go to toystores again!

 

[tribdog]

Who needs a reason? I go to toy stores all the time. Then again I'm a pedophile.

 

[Chrono]

They'll circle three aisles for 20 min looking for a spot to free up close to the doors, when I can just head out to the back of the lot, park immediately, and be in the store and shopping before they even get into a space.

Finally, someone else who finds some logic in parking spaces. I keep telling my dad about this and he just laughs it off while continuing to find a close space.

I do this at school. I got straight to the back where I know there are free spaces just waiting for the picking.

 

[tribdog]

I do this at school. I got straight to the back where I know there are free spaces just waiting for the picking.

I kept getting in trouble back in my high school days because if I couldn't find a good parking space I'd park in a teachers spot.

 

[Moonbear]

I kept getting in trouble back in my high school days because if I couldn't find a good parking space I'd park in a teachers spot.

We didn't get in trouble for parking in a teacher's spot in high school, our cars just got towed! There was one cop who must have done something horribly wrong early in his career, because he was assigned to do nothing but patrol the high school lot all day. You'd get a parking ticket if you just had a tire touching the white line between spaces.

You know, people just don't think radially in parking lots. They start down the row right in front of the door, and never consider if they park near the front of a row that's four rows away, it's closer than the far end of that first row. You can usually find some good spaces just a few rows from the main entrance. That's what I did today. I didn't head to the back of the lot because I immediately spotted a lot of spaces in a row that was sort of midway between two entrances. Since it was raining, and there's a parking deck for this mall too, I figured most people were probably circling in the parking deck fearful they'd melt if they got wet.

 

[Nereid]

The other trick is to go straight to the top deck of a multi-level parking skyscaper ... no one wants to go up there (it's open to the elements - hock! shorror!), yet the time to walk (or if you're lazy, catch the lift) down is far less than the time you'd otherwise spend on the lower decks desperately fighting for a space (usually the only ones left are for 'small cars' LOL - they mean motorbikes, surely).

 

[Math Is Hard]

The other trick is to go straight to the top deck of a multi-level parking skyscaper ... no one wants to go up there (it's open to the elements - hock! shorror!), yet the time to walk (or if you're lazy, catch the lift) down is far less than the time you'd otherwise spend on the lower decks desperately fighting for a space (usually the only ones left are for 'small cars' LOL - they mean motorbikes, surely).

I'm with you, Nereid. There's always plenty of room at the top!

 

[Moonbear]

The other trick is to go straight to the top deck of a multi-level parking skyscaper ... no one wants to go up there (it's open to the elements - hock! shorror!), yet the time to walk (or if you're lazy, catch the lift) down is far less than the time you'd otherwise spend on the lower decks desperately fighting for a space (usually the only ones left are for 'small cars' LOL - they mean motorbikes, surely).

In the deck I park in at work, it's usually faster to take the stairs than the elevator. So, all those lazy people are standing there in the cold waiting for a slow elevator, while I'm zipping down the stairs and toward the warm building.