Friday 8 February 2008

Park and shop

When I lived in Hong Kong decades ago there was a supermarket called something like Park and Shop. The supermarket was pretty small by today's standards and the available parking was ludicrous; about three parking spots from memory. But it all seemed so futuristic in those days.

For some reason I was reminded of that store today when I drove into my local shopping centre in Edgecliff (underground in the picture above). I was on my way home from work and wanted to buy a loaf of bread. The centre is a modestly sized affair compared to some but still has this cavernous underground parking station that holds hundreds of cars.

Parking there can be a very irritating business. Cars can only progress single file through the station. At every point you are delayed whilst other drivers block the passage as they wait for that perfect parking space which is about to become vacant for them even though already vacant spaces are clearly visible further down the station.
Before that perfect space does become available for the driver blocking your way Madame Hausfrau has to empty three trolley loads of shopping into the departing car, fiddle with her purse, get into her car, adjust her makeup, switch on the ignition and check her rear view mirror six times. Then she slowly moves out of the space in a manner that suggests she is carrying a beating heart for a transplant operation that must under no circumstances be moved at faster than 10kms per hour.

If not the arriving/departing car tango then it is the trolley man who is blocking everyone's way. He slowly drives his trolley carrying vehicle around the car park stopping, as at The Stations of the Cross, to collect numerous abandoned trolleys.

Why do I fall for this stress inducing treatment so often? I would be much calmer and healthier if I walked to and from the centre.

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