Parking lot spaces/Shutterstock
In hindsight, driving to Metropolis at Metrotown to check out Black Friday sales was a terrible decision.
I should have taken transit - it’s an easy SkyTrain ride.
Not only would I have an hour of my life back, but I wouldn’t have witnessed humanity sink into the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones.
I drove into the mall’s parking garage – like an idiot – and was sucked into a kill-or-be-killed exercise in trying to find a parking spot.
Look, I don’t blame the mall for any of this – there is a lot of parking and the signage is good. But this is Black Friday and parking was in short supply.
It’s the people who were driving around and looking for scare parking spots that should be embarrassed. I was too ill-equipped for this exercise because I’m too polite.
Never going to Metrotown on Black Friday ever again. No sale is worth people trying to fight you over a parking spot.
— Tarnjit Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar)
Most of the other drivers were savage as they pulled dangerous U-turns or snuck into spots while people were trying to back into them.
I saw this move a couple of times – somebody was backing into a spot and somebody raced in front-first, jumped out of their vehicle and ran off while the other driver yelled expletives.
I saw several shaken fists as people argued over who was there first to get a spot.
Like I said, I’m too polite for a crowded parking garage so I ended up driving around and around, watching drivers yell at each other.
Each time I spotted somebody pulling out of a spot, I was too late as two or three other vehicles spotted it first.
After nearly an hour, I simply gave up and went home.
And, frankly, I didn’t mind not getting a spot. It’s a busy day, whatcha gonna do. What I minded was watching people set their hair on fire over parking spots - to watch humanity sink so low.
It’s. Just. Not. Worth. It.
This kind of behaviour isn’t just on busy days like Christmas Eve or Black Friday. Check out the underground parking at the Metrotown T&T on a Saturday. It’s a gong show of triple parking and angry honking.
Like I said, next time I’m taking the SkyTrain.
