Rude parking people

For my expanding line of rude people posts, we come to people who park rudely.

There's two forms of doing this - the unmindful or oblivious way, and the deliberate way.

The unmindful way is a person completely oblivious to the existence of other people, and parks in the way that requires the least amount of effort on their part. They will often be a few inches over the line, making it difficult for you to park in the spot next to them.

The unmindful parker isn’t doing this intentionally to keep you away from their car. In fact, this kind of parking actually increases your chance of someone door-dinging you on accident or on purpose. They are doing this because they can’t be bothered to think about how their performance of the job of parking their car is going to affect another person. You and I don’t exist in their eyes. Why should they bother to park carefully?

The deliberate way is the way Mr. Corvette does in the pictures here. He (I’m assuming it’s a he) wants you to know that ye doesn’t want you near his car. He’s taking two spaces, because he (and his car) are as important as two other people (and their cars), and you aren’t allowed to park close enough to his car to accidentally ding his doors.



I can respect that someone wants to keep their car in as perfect condition as possible, but I don’t think that parking directly between two spots (or even four, like I’ve seen elsewhere) is appropriate.

Now, in Mr. Corvette’s defense, the parking lot was not especially crowded, and he did not do this within the first 5 or 8 parking spots from the door. However, I don’t think that there’s a “right” time to park rudely and a “wrong” time to park rudely.

If you want to keep your car from suffering door dings and other calamity, I offer this advice:

• Park as far away from other cars as is reasonable. The extra walk to your destination will only be good for your health. (If you’re parking in handicapped zones, ignore this advice…)
• Park next to an island. This way only one car can park next to you, instead of one car on either side of you.
• Park close to the island, so that you give as much room on the other side as possible.
• Park so that the island is on your right. This way a car can only park to your left. The door facing your car will only open if there is a passenger. This drastically decreases the chance that a door facing your car will open.
• Park so that your car is visible to the public, employees of wherever you are, the street. This reduces the chance of someone breaking in to your car.

In short, there are ways to park wisely and politely simultaneously. Please exercise them.

Anonymous Rude Shopping Cart People

Another type of rude people is the Anonymous Rude Shopping Cart People.

What makes them rude is the same quality that makes other people rude. They think they are the only people in this world, or that other people in this world are lesser beings than them and must clean up after them.

This describes people who litter, people who don't refill the (coffee machine / copy machine / paper towel dispenser, whatever), and today it describes people who are rude with shopping carts.

There are two kinds of rudeness that I see people perform with these very useful tools.

One breach of implied shopping cart etiquette is performed while actively using the cart. I refer to the time when you park the cart in preparation of piling sundry items into the cart.

People do not park their carts with other people in mind, and sometimes not even themselves. They are pushing the cart down the aisle, thinking whatever random thoughts pile into their minds, and they spot something they like. “Oh look, chocolate coated crunchy puffs!” Their cart stops immediately wherever it is, so the unaware shopper can inspect this box of death closer .

Usually their cart was in the direct middle of the aisle (where most people push their carts), and they are now standing to the side of it. There’s no way you can push your cart around them. You stand there, feebly trying to get their attention without being rude to them, and eventually give up and either nudge their cart with yours, or ask them to move for you.

Fifteen feet later, you have to ask someone else to move, and ten feet later, two other people are staring each other down, unwilling to move their carts.

I try to set a good example when I shop. I try to be aware of other shoppers around me, and to push my cart to one side as I pick out my goods – and give people enough room to move around me without having to ask me to move.

Other shoppers ask me to move perhaps once every visit to the store, and I have to ask people to move for me upwards of ten or fifteen times.

The second kind of rudeness is what people do with their carts when they are done. They do all manner of things with them to discard them for the least effort, even if it means making someone else have to move it in order to get in to their car, or move their car away.

Someone left their shopping cart directly behind our car. There’s no way we can get into our car and drive away without pushing their cart somewhere. Where, exactly? Behind someone else’s car, so they can move it? How about into the shopping cart return area? Sure! Since I’m probably going to push my own shopping cart there anyhow, why don’t I also push this arrogant jerk’s cart there also? That makes great sense.

I have to wonder what is going through that person’s mind as he’s putting his cart behind some unknown person’s car, and drives off. I bet his only thought is, “I hope the owner of this car doesn’t see me doing this.”

Anonymous Rude Trash People

I'm finding that every time I encounter the "leavings" of anonymous rude people, I like them less and less. Actually, I think I've passed over the zero-point boundary, and instead of liking them less, I hate them more.

I'm going to talk about the rude trash-people we "didn't" encounter today, but who's refuse (literally and figuratively) negatively affect other people, who's faces they probably won't have to look in.

We have two trash bins at our apartment complex. Each trash bin has two flip-up covers on top of them. Someone flips the right side of one trash bin up, and people begin to fill that side. When it fills up, do you suspect that the next person who goes out there flips up the left side of that same trash bin, to begin filling the empty side of that bin?

Nope! They keep over filling the filled side, until they are putting things on top of the left lid! This is not the act of one inconsiderate person, but multiple people who continue to pile trash in this rude way.

Now when I go out to throw my trash away, it is not a simple matter for me to flip open the left lid - I would have to find some way to throw away all of the trash that other people have piled on top of the left lid. I would have to do the work that they were too lazy to do. And I would have to do it with two disadvantages:

• Several people's trash is on top of the lid
• I'm carrying all of my trash, too

As you can imagine, this is not a cool position to be in. I go around to the other trash bin, prop the top partway open with trash I'm carrying, and throw all of my trash in to that side. When I consider the task of picking up after other people, and my girlfriend waiting with the car idling, I decide to not clean up after several rude . But at least I threw out my trash in a way that does not make it more difficult for the next folks who show up.