4 Thatcham car park related rants Options

[GrumblingAgain]

Four totally pointless rants arising from one visit to the Waitrose car park in Thatcham this lunch time. (Well this is the random rants section ) One about cars and 3 about trolleys! (or is it trollies?)

For those familiar with that car park, once you enter, there's a left turn which forms the first aisle and passes close to the front of the shop or, if you ignore it, you carry on slightly then the route bears to the left and becomes the second aisle.

On the corner of that latter turn, on the left, the first parking bay is rather short as a result of the layout. It will just take a mini sized car. Yet almost every time I use the car park there will be a huge 4x4 or large estate vehicle in that spot. The driver has usually gone in front first, and so must be completely unaware that a significant part of their vehicle is now sticking out of the bay causing quite an overhang into the main aisle. Estates aren't quite so bad, but 4x4s completely block the view so that when you swing out wide to avoid the back end of their car, you risk crunching someone coming the other way! Please use some common sense If the bay is smaller than your car (and the road isn't part of thr bay), go and find a more normal sized bay.

The trolley park areas - they are quite large, the size of a parking bay. When they happen to be empty, why do people returning their trolley leave them at the opening of the trolley bay? Surely all it needs is about 3 more steps to leave them at the back of the bay, thereby leaving ample space for others to subsequently leave theirs. I invariably see 3 trolleys "dumped" at the front of the bay and then other trolleys are then left in the roadway because no one wants to push them in a bit. Madness.

Outside the Waitrose building the pavement isn't completely flat - it slopes towards the road. The main trolley park areas have long stretches of poles to put the trolleys behind. Why then do people deliberately dump their trolley in the non-barrier bit of pavement?! Gravity and the wind soon sends a dumped trolley off into the road. Again, a few steps more is all it needs.

Lastly I am not convinced of the need for those extra wide parking areas right outside the shop, but apparently parents these days are incapable of getting their kids out of their cars without them (life must have been so horribly awful & difficult 20 years ago, how did we manage?) but now they've got them they are obviously popular with both parents and non-parent lazy gits.

If having all that extra space is important to them, why on earth do they, once they've loaded up their car, leave their trolley dumped in the hatched area The hatched area gives you that space, they are not your personal trolley park – lazy gits. Unless the next visitor parks exactly the same way, they won’t be able to get out without bashing their door on the trolley. Put the thing away properly - its about 5 steps behind you. Or even better, turn the spaces back into normal bays!

There - a good rant. I feel better now

[AmieB]

Lastly I am not convinced of the need for those extra wide parking areas right outside the shop, but apparently parents these days are incapable of getting their kids out of their cars without them (life must have been so horribly awful & difficult 20 years ago, how did we manage?) but now they've got them they are obviously popular with both parents and non-parent lazy gits.

Im sure we have been here before on the 'Your Views' page. Years ago we never had electricity, gas, telephones, computers etc but they managed. But now we manage better with new inventions and ideas. I do park in other areas of the supermarkets and i can tell you, inless your happy with me scratching your car door where im trying to get my son(17months) out then fine. Drivers do not know how to park in between 2 lines. I dont see why it angers you so much? You should be happy that there is somewhere for us to get out safely instead of scratching yor car. But with all your posts 'grumbling' i dont think your ever be happy!

[GrumblingAgain]

Im sure we have been here before on the 'Your Views' page. Years ago we never had electricity, gas, telephones, computers etc but they managed. But now we manage better with new inventions and ideas. I do park in other areas of the supermarkets and i can tell you, inless your happy with me scratching your car door where im trying to get my son(17months) out then fine. Drivers do not know how to park in between 2 lines. I dont see why it angers you so much? You should be happy that there is somewhere for us to get out safely instead of scratching yor car. But with all your posts 'grumbling' i dont think your ever be happy!

I think you kind of missed the point there

I wasn't really objecting to the parent & child extra wide spacing, I was really moaning about the way, having got the spaces, some parents then are too lazy to return their trolley, instead dumping the trolley in the space and thereby possibly rendering the parking space useless for the next visiting car. Rather selfish don't you think?

I did question how we managed before but I missed out a smiley (I didn't want too many in one post). However the point was - parents WERE capable of getting their kids in and out without having to dink other cars. Not so long ago, people still made efforts to consider others. If the space was tight (and parking badly isn't a new thing) you took extra care NOT TO ding the car next door, especially when struggling getting a small child out.

Not now though, and your response perfectly highlights today's "stuff you attitude". Space a bit tight? Just carry on in the same manner as you would normally and if you ding another car so what, it isn't your fault - it must be the other person for having the cheek of parking next door before you even arrived. It does seem that nowadays having a child immediately absolves people of any responsibilities whatsoever.

Sorry if you misinterpreted a few tongue in cheek moans in the RANTS section, but that's why it’s called a RANTS section. Now I am going to add a genuine rant to the Bollards thread. Then the bank holiday weekend beckons. Have a nice one.