I’m sure riding my bike to Trader Joe’s makes me some kind of hipster, but it’s very satisfying to lock up right in front of the door and stroll in.
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Those lots looked comparatively good. Check the madness at Pico in Santa Monica. Somehow there’s always a spot all the way around the far side/exit only where there are only about 10 spots, but it’s scary to go that way because if there isn’t, you’re back on the street starting over in the back of the queue.
+1 to that! USC Village underground (and I think UCLA/Westwood as well) is good too, and even when the lines are long, they have SO many registers it moves very quickly.
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A whole store stocked with Safeway Select?
Of the two TJ’s that I shop at, one has ample parking, the other doesn’t. But the one that doesn’t appears to have taken that location out of necessity-- popular part of town, busy intersection, lots of nearby attractions-- the building came with a small parking lot, not really any way to expand it. I usually just park on the street there.
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Thats the part I hate about the place. Its like they institutionalized cringey friendly
Safeway Select without the hype.
That…America has a poor public transportation system, and cities and towns are designed for automobiles so no one goes there by bike or on foot and is forced to drive there? Did I get it right?
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???
I’d hate to park my scooter there. It’s a plated motorcycle, doesn’t belong at the bike rack, and I’ll bet that they don’t have motorcycle parking spots. Park in a regular spot, and some a-hole would probably try to “share” the spot with his F150.
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wow, you rescued this thread, buddybradley.
this op and thread are so depressing. urbanists who study how healthy and unhealthy cities got that way frequently cite parking minimums in the zoning laws and street parking as big problems. car culture in all its forms is so toxic. but these problems never get addressed because of the collective Stockholm syndrome. b-but MY CARRR! like, politics aside, everyone knows not to leave it running in a closed garage because THEY could die, but letting it loose into the atmosphere magically becomes a non-issue. “But everybody else is doing it” is supposed to be a stupid argument that kids use to justify dangerous actions but somehow every adult pretends that the air is a-ok to freely pollute and that death by automobile is just a fact of life – it’s the most common cause of death that isn’t disease in the US. guns don’t even rank comparatively, but I was just informed have recently pulled ahead of auto fatalities and hoo-boy, any gun issue topics here are hundreds of replies long denigrating how stupid gun culture is. then here, the topic of “someone dared to not kowtow to toxic norms of car culture” and everyone other than buddybradley is like “yeah, I hate when I’m inconvenienced without a piece of free real estate to park my room-sized motorized storage locker.”
fucking really? where am I? y’all are advocating for this ↓↓↓???
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Thanks, just thought I’d add another perspective, that’s all. And @elliotk also mentioned biking there!
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Firearm fatalities passed vehicular fatalities a few years ago and have steadily opened up a gap.
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more bad news.
sorry, I’ll fix my post. thanks.
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Well, I described that incorrectly. Firearm fatalities remain in the 40k/year range while vehicle fatalities continue to drop, so that’s sorta good news. There were huge improvements in fatality rate in the late 2000s.
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due to automobile safety engineering I would assume. heaven knows the drivers haven’t improved their driving habits, from my observation.
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IIRC, the biggest improvement during that time was mandatory stability control systems for SUVs to reduce rollover accidents.
Back to the topic - oddly enough, I never have problems parking at our closest TJs. I wouldn’t say the lot is big, but it seems to be just big enough that it’s not an issue. Compared to the local Costco which has a parking lot that needs its own zip code, but is still always full. 
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So the minuscule parking lots are a feature and not an aberration of my local TJ?
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I always thought the Whole Foods parking lot in Boulder was cramped, but then a Trader Joe’s opened and I learned how wrong I was. You have to fight for parking with the McDonald’s drive thru exit, one way exits and… ugh. Now the WF area seems spacious.
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Could someone please repost it here, for those of us who don’t want to click on that big white rectangle that blocks access to the front page, unless you agree to its invasive conditions?
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