Parking charges

[expat]

Apart from the humorous side of this story, is it now a normal thing for supermarkets to charge for parking. I only "go home" once a year or so, is this the next "Rip off England" product that awaits me on my next tea bag and Marmite run?


Discount if you are English

Matt

[Hagar]

This probably depends on the location of the store. A couple of supermarkets in my home town have their own car parks in prime positions near the town centre. These are obviously convenient as parking in the town is very expensive.  The stores make a token charge (it used to be a fiver) to prevent every Tom, D|ck & Harry parking there but if you can show a valid store receipt there is no charge. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. In my experience parking is free in out of town stores.

[Fozzer]

A funny story about this Supermarket Parking malarkey....

Many years ago when my local Sainsbury's Supermarket was built, they installed an automatic Car Park barrier, triggered by the car wheels contacting a patch in the road, which then raised the barrier...

This was all very well for 4-wheeled, wide-tracked vehicles, but no good for dear old Fozz with his trusty 2-wheeled Motor-Bike, which always failed to trigger the barrier!.. ...!

As a regular, daily, shopper at the Supermarket (then and now) I quickly pointed out this problem to the the Big Chief at the Store who promptly got one of his minions to saw four feet (length) off the end of the barrier, just enough for me (and other 2 wheelers) to squeeze through the barrier, (which obviously remained firmly in the down position).

Wasn't that nice of them?...
Now you don't get that sort of personal service everywhere!... ...!

To thank them for their interest in my welfare, I now spend each day at the Store, carefully emptying the contents of my Purse, containing my weekly Pension, into Mr. Sainsbury's private Bank...
..and in return he supplies me with my daily Bread...(and Butter).....!

So we are both Happy Bunnies... [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]...!

Paul...Barriers never halt my progress... 8-)...!

P.S.   Motor bikes normally don't normally have to pay parking charges for a number of reasons.... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!

[Sir_Crashalot]

Same thing here at my local supermarket. Located in the centre of the town parking is free for customers of the store. You get a receipt when you enter the parkinglot, you have it scanned when you pay for whatever you bought and you can drive out again. Free of charge. Unless you don't buy anything, then you pay like 2 Euro for every hour your car was inside.

Now I can live with that. It's a businness and they want to earn some money. What I absolutely hate is the fact that I have to pay for parking at our local hospital. When our daughter was born I had to pay almost 12 Euro for parking....... That's what I call a rip-off.

Crash

[Hagar]

What I absolutely hate is the fact that I have to pay for parking at our local hospital. When our daughter was born I had to pay almost 12 Euro for parking....... That's what I call a rip-off.

Crash

Indeed. Even the staff have to pay to park at our local hospital. Bizarre.

[expat]

What I absolutely hate is the fact that I have to pay for parking at our local hospital. When our daughter was born I had to pay almost 12 Euro for parking....... That's what I call a rip-off.

Crash

Indeed. Even the staff have to pay to park at our local hospital. Bizarre.

At the last company I worked for, you got company clothes, but then had to pay for the washing service. Being an aircraft tech, on a bad day I could go through a couple of sets.

Matt

[Jared]

SOunds a little goofy to me....

Jared - (happily parking at the local supermarket for FREE still)

[MWISimmer]

As a regular, daily, shopper at the Supermarket (then and now) I quickly pointed out this problem to the the Big Chief at the Store who promptly got one of his minions to saw four feet (length) off the end of the barrier, just enough for me (and other 2 wheelers) to squeeze through the barrier, (which obviously remained firmly in the down position).

But Paul, with your super-healthy diet and athletic, low BMI frame, surely you could have just limbo-danced under the barrier?

 :o  :D

[Fozzer]

As a regular, daily, shopper at the Supermarket (then and now) I quickly pointed out this problem to the the Big Chief at the Store who promptly got one of his minions to saw four feet (length) off the end of the barrier, just enough for me (and other 2 wheelers) to squeeze through the barrier, (which obviously remained firmly in the down position).

But Paul, with your super-healthy diet and athletic, low BMI frame, surely you could have just limbo-danced under the barrier?

 :o  :D

My personal super-fitness has nothing to do with it...desirable though I am...

...my trusty Motor Bike needs to accompany me as well, to and from Mr. Sainsbury's Superstore, via his "barriered" Car Park......!

Me, my trusty Motor-bike, my trusty haversack, and Mr. Sainsbury's Superstore, is all that keeps me from starvation...every day...

...trust me......!

Paul...slowly consuming the Great Barrier Reef...with Chips... ..!

[MrRooney]

As a regular, daily, shopper at the Supermarket (then and now) I quickly pointed out this problem to the the Big Chief at the Store who promptly got one of his minions to saw four feet (length) off the end of the barrier, just enough for me (and other 2 wheelers) to squeeze through the barrier, (which obviously remained firmly in the down position)


My personal super-fitness has nothing to do with it...desirable though I am...

...my trusty Motor Bike needs to accompany me as well, to and from Mr. Sainsbury's Superstore, via his "barriered" Car Park......!

Me, my trusty Motor-bike, my trusty haversack, and Mr. Sainsbury's Superstore, is all that keeps me from starvation...every day...

...trust me......!

Paul...slowly consuming the Great Barrier Reef...with Chips... ..!

That i know well Paul,
One of the places i used to frequent on the old SR125, used to have barriers to stop the bikes from bypassing the charges...
The way the bikes got around this was by pushing there bike's as if something failed (i.e chain etc) and then doing the same on the way out  ;)

[Flying Trucker]

Good morning all...

Here in the colony we have free parking at most supermarkets and malls.  There are still a few cities and towns that have parking meters along the streets and why I don't know, it only hurts the downtown shopper and most folks will go to the large malls where parking is free.

Some of the supermarkets have a charge for the grocery cart, it is usually 25 cents (a quarter) however that is to ensure you don't take the thing home or leave it in a ditch somewhere.  When you bring the shopping cart back you get your money back.

We do pay for parking here at the hospitals and folks are not happy at all.  The hospitals are payed for by the taxpayer who are being gouged again by private industry who are very well paid to run the hospital.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug