Special Parking 2 -- Employee of the Month

The lot is full, as is every mall lot days before Xmas. After driving up and down rows of cars for 10 minutes, I spot it from the corner of my eye-- a clear space. It is the first in the row, adjacent to the store, and it is about 90% certain that there is not a small decoy car in that spot. It calls to me like a beacon on a lone runway. It's mine.

I nose into the spot to see the sign, "RESERVED FOR ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH". WTF?

Yes, the coveted space has been hijacked as an incentive to make minimum-wage workers push their thin talents to the extreme. You may not get health benefits, a rational boss or a shot at vaguely nutritious stuff in the breakroom vending machine, but the good folks at Corporate know that they can make you peeons jump through hoops for that parking spot. Yesssiree Bob.

Certainly the closer to the store you are the less time you have to waste propelling yourself. Plus, your tricked out fast-n-furious Nissan Sentra with no muffler will look swell in that primo spot.

The problem is that I am the customer and I should get a crack at that spot. I don't mind competing. However, to reserve it for an employee is reprehensible. When I worked for long-defunct Service Merchandise back in the 1980's we had to park in the back of the lot, the customer was always first. Now that's completely changed!

More to come on the subject of reserved spaces.