Park It

So I go to Costco to pick up a couple of things. Now, like most big-box stores, Costco's got a parking lot that could have its own Area Code. Being somewhat early on a Sunday, the lot wasn't what one would term "crowded" by any stretch of the imagination. But there was still a huge snarl in the traffic flow. Someone had decided to camp out, waiting for someone else to pull out of a parking space. They'd stopped right in the middle of the traffic lane, so there wasn't enough room to pass them on either side. And topping things off, someone else was waiting to get out of their parking space, but couldn't, because the camper was blocking them in. All this, when there were empty parking spaces in the next row over.

Why it's become so important to find a parking space as close to the door as possible is completely beyond me. What, is walking an extra 30 feet proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals or something? Generally speaking, I have found that it's faster to drive to the first open spot that you find, park, and walk back, than wait for a closer spot to open up. I routinely pass someone waiting for a space, go park my car, and walk back past that same person, who's still waiting for the space to open up. I understand that sometimes, you can wind up walking an extra hundred yards or more, but it's not like most of us wouldn't benefit from a little more exercise.