Amazingly I like driving to the drugstore

[JayG]

yea, but what used to be a 2 mile drive now is 30 mile round trip on back roads

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by JayG

yea, but what used to be a 2 mile drive now is 30 mile round trip on back roads

Haha! Yeah - I have some very... interesting routes to get to my common points.

[BIGJake111]

Originally Posted by CraigM

Haha! Yeah - I have some very... interesting routes to get to my common points.

You should see my route to school and back haha.

[Perfectlap]

I pick my grocery runs based on the time when the parking lot is empty.

The Whole Foods parking lot is always swamped. You have no choice but to park in between cars. So I don't shop there anymore although I miss the produce selection.

The Wal-Mart is strictly after midnight proposition, and I still park at the far, far end of the parking lot to provide an at least 8 empty spots cushion front, back, left and right. As that company is managed by morons who never open up enough registers I avoid it anyway. More time on line, more time for kooks to mess with your car out in the lot. Wal-Mart has by far the most infuriating lines in these parts. I've been to other Wal-Marts out of state, same issue. I have lost count of the times I left items behind just to skip a 20 minute wait on line.

Costco/BJ's/Sam's is also another far end of the parking lot situation. Which means a long hike but with those giant karts barelling down into your doors not parking on the highest point of the parking lot is a sin. Basically anywhere you see family wagons, you want to park far in the no man's land and even thinking about parking next to one of those cars is asking for a door ding.

Fast food places, same deal too many teen drivers and bad drivers rushing in a lunch break who just swing their doors open. Park far away.


Big shopping malls, I park on the top level of a parking deck. Lazy people never drive up that far. And look for the video cameras so that the sight lines pick up your car. If there is no parking deck, I park on the empty side of the lot at the farthest part. Where some guy parking next to the only other car in the vicinity (why?) will stick out to a passing driver. Especially if he's snooping around.

What I find interesting is that if you look at the cars that are always parked closest to the entrance of any store or mall, virtually every other car has door dings. People who really hate walking also open their doors carelessly.

[BIGJake111]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

The Wal-Mart is strictly after midnight proposition, and I still park at the far, far end of the parking lot to provide an at least 8 empty spots cushion front, back, left and right. As that company is managed by morons who never open up enough registers I avoid it anyway. More time on line, more time for kooks to mess with your car out in the lot. Wal-Mart has by far the most infuriating lines in these parts. I've been to other Wal-Marts out of state, same issue. I have lost count of the times I left items behind just to skip a 20 minute wait on line.

I would be very wary of that, kids like to learn how to drift at the local walmarts after dark. One of the local stores has a hill for the parking lot, lazy individuals never take the time to put the carts in the cart racks where they then proceed to roll down the hill into cars.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by BIGJake111

I would be very wary of that, kids like to learn how to drift at the local walmarts after dark. One of the local stores has a hill for the parking lot, lazy individuals never take the time to put the carts in the cart racks where they then proceed to roll down the hill into cars.

You must have very few cops around in your parts.
If such a thing were to happen here something approaching a SWAT team would be there in a blink...
I don't know about other states, but Wal-Marts seem always to be very close to a major highway, where cops are everywhere looking for tickets to write or transients to follow once they exit the highway. And there's always the rent-a-cop in the Wal-Mart parkign lot sitting there usually doing nothing but waiting to hear a car alarm go off while he texts his girlfriend. Except in Florida. On my last visit someone car-jacked a shopper in broad daylight and I missed a shoot out at another one near Disney by a matter of minutes. Turns out it was a chase on the Turnpike that ended up in the parking lot with the guy fleeing into the Wal-Mart with a bullet wound to the leg. I guess security depends on the local police presence. Post 9/11 we have a lot of it at all times.

[BoxsterSteve]

Originally Posted by JayG

yea, but what used to be a 2 mile drive now is 30 mile round trip on back roads

So I'm not the only one:
"We're out of milk, honey, I'll be back in an hour and a half."

[Gforrest2]

about the only time I get to drive the Boxster is on short errands. I bought it for long road trips with the wife, but with her bad back, she won't ride in it any more.