Call me cranky, but don’t give up prime parking spaces at the grocery store for online shoppers
I think I might be getting cranky in my old age. Eighty-seven does qualify as “old,” doesn’t it?
What is making me cranky right now are grocery stores. Stores you are familiar with and love shopping at – until one day you walk in and nothing is where it used to be.
I know what their theory is – if you can’t find what you want, you walk around and pick up a cart full of things you had no intention of buying and probably don’t need or even have a use for. But you’ve put more money in their pocket.
That happened to me recently and I was being particularly cranky that day, so I told the lady stocking a shelf that I couldn’t find what I wanted and I was not going to play their games looking for it. I told her one of the things I wanted was corned beef, so I was heading for the meat aisle, which they hadn’t moved, and getting my corned beef and leaving. Then I got in my car and drove to the discount grocery in Albion – where everything is in the same place and there is always a place to park near the door.
Oh yeah. Parking is another issue. Our local discount store some time ago decided to take three prime parking spaces closest to the door and devote them solely to online shoppers. Boy, does that irk me. So they have three spaces for online shoppers, who may or may not be elderly or handicapped, and two parking spaces reserved for “handicapped.” I call that discrimination.
When they first made that designation, I didn’t shop there for a year. Instead I drove 10 miles to the other store, which still has all their handicap parking close to the door. And people who elect to drive to the store and do their own shopping are not penalized.
The way I see it, if for whatever reason, you elect to have someone else do your shopping for you, you have priority. I realize some people find it impossible to physically go to the store, but in the instance of this local store, the online shopper could easily pull up next to the building while the clerk brings his or her groceries to the car. No parking spaces would be occupied.
I go by that store nearly every day, and sometimes several times a day. And rarely do I ever see a car parked in those three “reserved for online shoppers” parking spaces. Yet, the manager of the store told me they are often full. I haven’t seen more than one car there in the nearly two years. And most of the time, they are all empty.
For that matter, online parking spaces could be reserved farther from the door. The store employee who brings the groceries to the car is not handicapped and would have no trouble pushing a grocery cart to the second row or even the back of the parking lot. And leave those spaces closest to the door for those who make the extra effort to come to the store and do their own shopping.
When a shopper, like me, who is elderly and maybe finds walking a little difficult, can’t find a space close to the store, they have to walk all the way to the back of the parking lot, unload their groceries, walk all the way back to return the cart and then make the trip back to the car.
I have even defiantly parked in an online space on occasion, but then decided why should I park illegally to shop at a store that doesn’t consider me a priority.
I tried to shop at that store again, and not only were the two handicap spaces filled, but the entire parking lot was full, except for the very back row, farthest from the door. While the three online shopping spaces were all empty. So you know what I did.
I drove to Albion and spent my $100 there. And I had a parking space closest to the door.
