Early this morning I drove to our nearby Vons to shop. Since I’ve had an intense chocolate chip scone craving all week, I ran across the street to a patisserie to buy one. Total detour time: Less than 120 seconds.
Imagine my surprise when I returned to my car and found a “Parking Citation” on the windshield. It threatened towing if the car were to be cited again.
Incensed that I was being penalized for being “green” (parking ONCE and doing two errands), I marched into the store and encountered a manager-on-duty with more than her share of attitude. When I explained that a company like Vons, which claims to be environmentally conscious, should not be forcing customers to drive to another business in the same block, I was told “If you need to go to another store, you’ll have to drive to it and park there.”
I understand that this particular Vons might have a problem with beach-goers parking in the lot (though it is at least a half-mile walk to any beach and most Americans won’t walk that far). But surely a company with Vons’ high profile can think outside the box and come up with a solution that doesn’t scoff at the efforts of responsible citizens to do their shopping in an environmentally-sound fashion.
Has this happened to anyone else out there? What do you think about the practice of ticketing and towing a customer’s car just because he/she went into another shop in the area?
While I await your comments, I’ll be making my lists for next week’s shopping trip. To Ralphs.
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