Flyers are an annoyance. The staff of my building keep a recycling container in the foyer alongside our mailboxes, presumably because so many other people feel the same way. I don’t recall the foyer being littered with discarded flyers before the container was brought in, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Because of this recycling container, very few flyers ever make the journey up to my apartment. Most find themselves in the container. I’m not sure why, but Ikea flyers do often make their way to my apartment. I don’t buy much there, but I guess you could say I like the cut of their jib.
All Canadian Ikea stores now reward drivers of fuel-efficient vehicles with a pair of special parking spots near each location’s front entrance.
Imagine my amusement at the small coloured panel I discovered on the back of the flyer. Each Canadian Ikea location now reserves two parking spots near the store entrance for fuel-efficient vehicles. As Don suggested to me, regular people won’t even be able park in the lot soon. There are spots reserved for the handicapped, families, and now efficient vehicles as well. These spots occupy the lowest priority of the special parking, being farther from the entrance than both the handicapped and family spots.
Unfortunately the depicted signage only mentions hybrid vehicles, while the small notice very few people will see indicates any vehicle that uses less than 6.5 l/100 km is welcome to use the two spots. I can just imagine parking my diesel there, and having people give me dirty looks, if not challenging my choice of parking spot.
The idea is a marketing master stroke, really. Ikea publicises yet another policy proving it is environmentally conscious, the ‘suburb-environmentalists’ will love them for it, and it costs the company practically nothing. Genius.
Jonathan
Don’t worry about parking your diesel in the hybrid spot. If you had a car that didn’t meet the requirements they couldn’t ticket you for it. Those spots exists for image boosting not for any concern for the planet. I certainly do not appear to be a pregnant woman but I still use those spots on occasion. I can’t imagine any other reason for the pregnant spots to have cropped up than to suck up to people who are likely to be spending a fair amount of money to accommodate the new arrival. These spots are not governed by by-laws. Could it really be that after thousands of years pregnant human females have become so feeble that they can no longer cope with the walk from the car to the store? Goodness me what did we do before specialized parking? What indeed did we do before cars? Could those spots not be better used to furnish more handicapped spaces? Those people have the real problems. Perhaps since my car is old and may be on its last legs the stores should accommodate me by letting me park close so I can save the wear and tear it takes to park in a spot without some goofy sign in front of it!
Having said all that I think the proposed green license plate for municipally sanctioned preferred parking idea is a sound one. That means make it a real governed spot or don’t put it there. Say no to profit driven shame based parking!