Return within 2 hours.

[Drawweight]

Our supermarket has recently installed cameras and one of the rules is no return within 2 hours.

Our house and many more in the estate are situated so that it’s quite feasible to go to the supermarket, then go up to the High Street and call back into the supermarket on the way home if you’ve forgotten something.

I understand on overstaying you are depriving the supermarket of the ‘use’ of that space and they can claim as such but what is the justification for the 2 hour rule?

If you are back in the shop shopping you are not depriving them of that space.

[dundarach]

I was under the impression that the car park was managed by another company.

You're local supermark will not care, the parking company will not care.

If you break the rules, they'll nab you.

[jondude]

Maybe it is the same as my area - many builders and hauliers use the Tesco and Lidl car parks for a break and their lunch and they really do take up lots of space.

Some leave their engines running throughout their up to one hour stay, presumably to keep themselves warm while not worrying about the crap coming out of the exhausts. Some park very badly, take up 2 spaces. (Although OK that goes for many others too)

This rule would not stop them but yes, return visits for the afternoon break might well be avoided.

Unlikely such a 'ban' is not going to get support.

[Tommo87]

The justification is to stop the common occurrence of people who work or live locally from using the site as a free long stay parking.

Edited by Tommo87 on Monday 14th December 11:19

[4rephill]

Drawweight said:

Our supermarket has recently installed cameras and one of the rules is no return within 2 hours.

Our house and many more in the estate are situated so that it’s quite feasible to go to the supermarket, then go up to the High Street and call back into the supermarket on the way home if you’ve forgotten something.

I understand on overstaying you are depriving the supermarket of the ‘use’ of that space and they can claim as such but what is the justification for the 2 hour rule?

If you are back in the shop shopping you are not depriving them of that space.

You're describing a specific situation, that will rarely happen (that's not to say it never happens, but it won't be a regular situation)

What the supermarkets have discovered is, in general:

If they have free parking, people park in the car park for the whole day, and go elsewhere to do other shopping that is nothing to do with the supermarket.

If they offer free parking only for a limited number of hours, without a: "no-return within X minutes/hours" policy, people park in the car park and go off elsewhere until their free parking period ends, when they come back, drive out of the car park, and then immediately drive straight back into the car park, to start another free parking period.

If they offer free parking for a limited number of hours, and have a "no-return within X minutes/hours" policy, then at the end of the free parking period, people have to leave the car park, and can't just turn around immediately for more free parking.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I know someone who for years thought "no return within 2 hours" meant she couldn't retrieve her car in that time, and had to stay there the full 2 hours. So often avoided supermarket parking as she only needed a few things! Would park in the nearest street and walk to the supermarket. Also, if it was a big shop that took and hour, would go into the cafe to use up the remaining hour!!

She was gutted when the truth was eventually explained to her.

[blueg33]

Not sure why a landowner needs to justify the rules he puts in place for people visiting his land. As long as the landowner is not acting illgally he cam make up whatever rules he wants.

[mcflurry]

If you were to drive in and out the first time, and then if your other half did the return trip, could you argue that, "the driver didn't return within two hours" ?

[vaud]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I know someone who for years thought "no return within 2 hours" meant she couldn't retrieve her car in that time, and had to stay there the full 2 hours. So often avoided supermarket parking as she only needed a few things! Would park in the nearest street and walk to the supermarket. Also, if it was a big shop that took and hour, would go into the cafe to use up the remaining hour!!

She was gutted when the truth was eventually explained to her.

One problem is that people like that can end up on juries hearing very complex crimes.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

vaud said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I know someone who for years thought "no return within 2 hours" meant she couldn't retrieve her car in that time, and had to stay there the full 2 hours. So often avoided supermarket parking as she only needed a few things! Would park in the nearest street and walk to the supermarket. Also, if it was a big shop that took and hour, would go into the cafe to use up the remaining hour!!

She was gutted when the truth was eventually explained to her.

One problem is that people like that can end up on juries hearing very complex crimes.

And voting in the Brexit referendum!

[Nampahc Niloc]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

vaud said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I know someone who for years thought "no return within 2 hours" meant she couldn't retrieve her car in that time, and had to stay there the full 2 hours. So often avoided supermarket parking as she only needed a few things! Would park in the nearest street and walk to the supermarket. Also, if it was a big shop that took and hour, would go into the cafe to use up the remaining hour!!

She was gutted when the truth was eventually explained to her.

One problem is that people like that can end up on juries hearing very complex crimes.

And voting in the Brexit referendum!

Luckily not quite enough of them voted to allow remain to win

[sparkyhx]

irrespective of the leave for 2hrs, if its camera based, they will probably be open to the 'double dip' problem where if you return 5 hrs later it will count it as a single visit. and its a bh of a job to argue with the parking company .........lots of occurrence in forums around this

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Nampahc Niloc said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

vaud said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I know someone who for years thought "no return within 2 hours" meant she couldn't retrieve her car in that time, and had to stay there the full 2 hours. So often avoided supermarket parking as she only needed a few things! Would park in the nearest street and walk to the supermarket. Also, if it was a big shop that took and hour, would go into the cafe to use up the remaining hour!!

She was gutted when the truth was eventually explained to her.

One problem is that people like that can end up on juries hearing very complex crimes.

And voting in the Brexit referendum!

Luckily not quite enough of them voted to allow remain to win

Regardless of how they voted, we held a referendum on an incredibly complex and nuanced issue, in a country where we still have to write, on bottles of bleach, "DO NOT DRINK". We never should have held a referendum, or if we had to hold it, we should have taken the warnings off the bleach, for 2 years, and then held it.

[GroundZero]

Tommo87 said:

The justification is to stop the common occurrence of people who work or live locally from using the site as a free long stay parking.

Edited by Tommo87 on Monday 14th December 11:19

Bring back the days when car parking was in the vast majority completely free.
It would solve the problem of people looking to save money and time by parking where they maybe shouldn't.

Was trying to think back when car parking was mostly free and then over the course of only a few years became mostly charged or such that it was with many rules/restrictions.
Was it back in the early 2000's?

[Red9zero]

sparkyhx said:

irrespective of the leave for 2hrs, if its camera based, they will probably be open to the 'double dip' problem where if you return 5 hrs later it will count it as a single visit. and its a bh of a job to argue with the parking company .........lots of occurrence in forums around this

Had that a while ago. Called into McDonalds twice in one day (2nd visit was for a coffee, as I was running early in my defence). Was easy enough to sort out with cctv footage showing my car at home in the meantime.

[Nampahc Niloc]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Regardless of how they voted, we held a referendum on an incredibly complex and nuanced issue, in a country where we still have to write, on bottles of bleach, "DO NOT DRINK". We never should have held a referendum, or if we had to hold it, we should have taken the warnings off the bleach, for 2 years, and then held it.

You might be onto something there. Would also help with quality of juries.

[Nampahc Niloc]

GroundZero said:

Tommo87 said:

The justification is to stop the common occurrence of people who work or live locally from using the site as a free long stay parking.

Edited by Tommo87 on Monday 14th December 11:19

Bring back the days when car parking was in the vast majority completely free.
It would solve the problem of people looking to save money and time by parking where they maybe shouldn't.

Was trying to think back when car parking was mostly free and then over the course of only a few years became mostly charged or such that it was with many rules/restrictions.
Was it back in the early 2000's?

I presume you are talking about council owned car parks, if so councils have to make money somehow to pay for all the other services you enjoy, and if you don’t like how they’re spending the money, remember that they are elected. Failing that, they could just raise council tax.

[RB Will]

Red9zero said:

sparkyhx said:

irrespective of the leave for 2hrs, if its camera based, they will probably be open to the 'double dip' problem where if you return 5 hrs later it will count it as a single visit. and its a bh of a job to argue with the parking company .........lots of occurrence in forums around this

Had that a while ago. Called into McDonalds twice in one day (2nd visit was for a coffee, as I was running early in my defence). Was easy enough to sort out with cctv footage showing my car at home in the meantime.

Had that one too. Stopped In at a Halfords to get an interior light bulb for the wife's car. Was there all of 5 mins. Went home had lunch, did some faffing about and went to fit the bulb, realised it was the wrong size so went back to Halfords to exchange it for the right one. Again only there for 5-10 mins.
A month later get a fine through the door telling me I had been parked for about 2.5 hours. Luckily I still had the receipts showing original purchase and exchange so one email explaining the situation sorted it.

[GroundZero]

Nampahc Niloc said:

I presume you are talking about council owned car parks, if so councils have to make money somehow to pay for all the other services you enjoy, and if you don’t like how they’re spending the money, remember that they are elected. Failing that, they could just raise council tax.

Talking about pretty much most car parks back in the day. Not that many used to have pay machines, mostly 1-hour or 2-hour discs that you display for council owned parks and pretty much no restrictions at all in supermarkets, attractions and hospitals etc.
Then all of a sudden, I guess when the war on the motorist started in the Blair/Brown government in conjunction with the new climate change narrative that was spouted (I remember them preventing the planet from exploding by stating everyone should go out and by diesels etc), councils began to charge for parking to make urban centres harder for motorists to enter without being penalised.

Not only was it a catalyst to kick-start the decline of town centres it also forced people to park on any remaining land that would take cars, which then forced those land owners to either penalise motorists or hire PPCs to penalise them instead. (Penalise here meaning the motorist being charged a fee and to follow numerous rules/restrictions - and be charged again when they broke those rules/restrictions).

Ah the good old days, before Labour ruined it all. I note that the Torys are not doing anything to rectify the situation though!

Regarding councils, a simple tax raise to remove all the bullshine war on the motorist would be a better way of doing things regarding parking, but I think we are straying off topic.... or I have at least, with my ranting. (Apologies OP)

[wazztie16]

The local big supermarket near me has the entry and exit cameras before the fuel station and car park, before a roundabout.

I've always wondered what would happen if I went in to get fuel, spent say 20 minutes doing that (including queueing), went home then came back an hour later to go shopping, they have a no return 3 hour rule.

In fairness, I've probably already fallen foul of that, and had nothing through yet...