November 29, 2007
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Parking Spaces
I’ve always thought that people’s behavior toward parking spaces is really strange. People get really competitive over them, and will work very hard to get a premier spot at the front of a building no matter what the purpose of their visit. Whether they are going to the super market or the movie theatre or the local target or whatever. People seem to act as if it is a mark of pride to get that one special beautiful spot right there that minimizes their walking distance. It’s like a personal challenge for people. And they get really determined and sometims really upset when they can’t get the right spot. It matters to them a lot.
Now sometimes this makes *some* sense. I mean who wants to walk a long distance in the cold carrying lots of bags and whatnot? The closer to spot the easier your task, usually. Now we might argue that we’d all be healthier if we were willing to walk a little bit farther or that sometimes the time wasted waiting fighting over a prime spot exceeds the amount of time it would take to make that walk, but who cares. Such facts aren’t likely to dissuade anyone. And can you blame them? People really care about their comfort and ease. Some people more than others.
But here’s where it gets really weird. I was at Target today and it has this three story parking lot. It has doors that enter the building on the third floor and on the first floor and checkout lines on both floors and carts on both floors and big elevators that move between the three floors. What’s more the placement of products in the store seems to suggest that the expectation is that users would enter either on the top or bottom floor of target, go through the store, up or down te escalator as the case may be, go through the rest of the store and then exit once they are done, making one complete circuit. Then they elevator back to their vehicle. Right? Simple. No matter where you park you are probably going to be using the elevator at the end of your trip unless you’re only there for a quick pick up and you know before hand what floor its on. And for quick pick ups there were things I could see you’d want to go to the top floor foor and things that you’d want to go to the first floor for. I couldn’t really see one as being more likely than the other. And that makes sense from the retailers perspective, since they want to distribute goods in such a way as to maximize your browsing exposure to ensure optimum probability that you will impulse buy.
OK get it? There’s nothing and I mean absolutely nothing that I can see to recommend the first floor over the third. And even the second floor is only a tiny little elevator ride away from either entrance. So why is it then that I observed many a vehicle fighting over the few available spots on the first floor whereas the third floor had numerous empty spaces and the second floor had absolutely NO ONE parked there?
I think this shows a little bit of humanity’s madness. We might for those spaces anyway. We’ve gotta have em. We’ve got to WIN. Can’t let that other person take that space. It’s mine! I saw it first! That’s the way we are. Doesn’t matter if all reason tells us that it would be a more efficient use of our time to just drive up a floor or two and take an easily available space. Those spaces on the second and third floor don’t hold the allure of the first floor spaces. You don’t WIN if you get one of those spaces, because there just wasn’t any competition for them. The winners are the ones who get that ideal space on the first floor right where they want it just as the previous occupant was exiting with minimal walking distance from the door. Only when we get that space are we truly satisfied. That’s just the way it goes.
It’s pretty silly when you think about it. I might be more rational for us to even not fight over those spaces. Maybe park further away if you are healthy so that someone who is elderly, or sickly, or in less prime physical shape can get the closer spot. That might be kind and eminently reasonable, but don’t expect human beings to start acting that way any time soon. Not as long as we see parking as a kind of challenging game where the prize to be won is the closest spot.
Comments (2)
That is true! We work so hard to get that premiere spot and why? As you said, to be closer to the entrance… but why? Walking is a cardiovascular workout.. hmm. The urge to “win” over something so stupid is, well, stupid.
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