The Fire Lane Folly

I work for a discount store. We are a small store in a small town. The parking lot on our side of the strip mall is never completely full, unlike the side with the grocery store. There are always parking spaces available, usually within three or four spaces of the closest to the door.

In front of the store, there is a fire lane, which is technically illegal to park in. As it’s a small town, laws like this tend to be bent or broken a lot. Usually, it’s senior citizens or those with physical ailments that park in the fire lane. In general, we don’t kick up too much fuss about it.

On this day, however, we have an expected soda delivery from a large and well-known company. They always park in the fire lane to unload and never use the back door. I don’t know why. Unfortunately, when the delivery truck arrives, there is a car parked right in front of the door. It is blocking easy access for both customers and the delivery driver. Customers must walk around the car to get onto the sidewalk in front of the store and the delivery truck has to block the entrance to the store next to us.

My manager respectfully shouts out across our small store that the owner of the vehicle needs to move the car as it’s blocking a delivery, please. He does this twice before going around to the ten or so customers in the store asking if the vehicle belongs to them.

He comes upon the owner of the car, who immediately takes offense at the entire situation. The car owner moseys up to the register after five minutes.

Manager: *As respectfully as possible* “Please move your car. It’s only ten feet from an actual parking space.”

Car Owner: *Goes off on him* “I will move my car after I pay for my things!”

Manager: “You can continue shopping after moving your car, and we will gladly hold your items.”

Car Owner: “You are all rude! You’ve lost a customer for good! I will never step into your store again!”

They paid for their $30 worth of stuff and then huffed out of the store, only to ensnare a few of our other customers in their tirade about how we were the rudest people on the planet, telling everyone not to shop with us ever again. It was a full ten minutes before they finally got into their car and left.

I’m not sure who was in the wrong. They shouldn’t have parked in the fire lane and could have moved their car in less than two minutes and continued shopping. My manager should have been more forceful about getting them to move their car. Maybe he should have refused them service until they did. And the soda truck probably should deliver in the back.

Either way, I hope the customer had the day they deserved after looking ridiculous for throwing a fit about moving a car ten feet.