Parking Lot Whack-a-Mole

Last night myself and a couple of friends went out for dinner at a small seafood restaurant. This restaurant happens to be in a shopping center that is on one of the trendy streets for night clubs in town. Traffic is always bad on this road and becomes horrible as the night progresses. We planned to be out long before people started clubbing, so we didn't think too much about it.

We had a nice dinner, and decided to walk it off when we came out by walking to a market that was about a block away instead of trying to make 3 left turns in traffic. We spent a half hour or so shopping and brought our bags back to the car to head for home. When we got to the car our jaw dropped. The parking lot and all of the aisles were full and a complete madhouse.

Seems a trendy night club at the other end of the strip mall we parked in was having a special promotion where everyone who arrived before 9PM got in free. Obviously they didn't plan for the crowd this would pull in.

We couldn't move anyway, so we got into the car, turned on the radio and enjoyed some of the goodies we bought at the market while watching the chaos. The fun began when the owner of the seafood restaurant we ate at noticed what was going on. His customers had no place to park. The guy is visibly angry and marches down to the club and obviously tells them to keep their patrons out of his parking spots or he'll have them towed.

At this point, he has a couple of his guys out in the seafood restaurant's section of the parking lot guarding spots as they open up. Anyone who tries to pull in is asked if they're eating there, and if not they're told they can't park there. This turns into a hilarious game of whack-a-mole. While the guys are trying to run someone out of one parking spot, two others will slip into another. They must be being told anyone parked at the restaurant will be towed because within 10 minutes, each one hikes back from the nightclub and then moves their car.

We sat and watched the mayhem until it cleared up. I guess we were bored, but we found it quite entertaining, and we couldn't move anyway. The aisles were clogged and the poor parking lot attendants had to feel like they were herding cats.