I've always wondered. Pass by a store, such as Hastings, and the outer ring of parking spots is occupied not by shoppers but by sellers...folks who want to get rid of their rides and pick up a few bucks in the process. The other day, I counted eight vehicles for sale on the Willow Creek side of the lot -- and I'm certain that the cars lining Iron Springs Road were also for sale.
And, as I rode along Miller Valley toward town, there were even more cars for sale visible from the street in big lots at True Value and Fry's.
When I see these freebie used car lots, I wonder many wonders. F'ristance, is it a friendly gesture on the part of the supermarkets and super bookstores to allow their customers to park for-sale vehicles? Even more important, do any of these cars actually sell? If so, how long must they linger, on average?Linkage: If you enjoy artistic graffiti, as I do, I highly recommend Hoarded Ordinaries' current pix from Central Square in Cambridge Mass. Take an strange & interesting walk at 7000 ft. with High Altitude Gardening. Next, hie yourself down to Touch the Wind in Tucson for the All Souls night parade (two posts, here and here.) Finally, for an intimate look at the world of Bombay, visit Windy Skies (and plan on staying a while -- Anil P doesn't post often, but his essays and musings are longer than most posts but well worth lingering). Interesting pictures as well.
It looks pretty sparse out there. We had a similar situation here in Upstate New York, but when the "for sale" cars impinged on the merchants' patrons' spaces, they were shortly on notice and later cleaned out.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the lower gas prices will alleviate the problem.
The vehicles in your photos do not even appear to be the most egregious of the gas hogs.
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean? Now that gasoline is down to $2, the owners wanted to buy a brontosaurus-sized pickup? Groan.
I'm curious. Aren't there used-car markets where they sell? Here, one car manufacturer takes back used cars of their various brands, services them and puts them on sale.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention.
pb -- I suppose that if the parking lot were full, there might be a crackdown, but as a rule, few such parking lots do fill up very often.
ReplyDeleteboonie -- according to what I have read, pickups are selling despite the fall of the SUV. I also noted that some of the vehicles on sale weren't the biggest gas hogs; maybe they came from 2-car owners.
anil -- our used car markets are almost all trade-ins on new autos; my presumption is that owners of the machines in store parking lots want the value out of those vehicles without having to buy a new car. BTW, thanks for your blog -- I would never get to know your country by travel compared to your writing and pictures -- though I would enjoy the visit nonetheless.
Ford keeps calling trying to buy our small sized suv. Don't know why except it happens to be the same model B.O. drives.
ReplyDeletebrain -- that's very curious! Are they offering a good price?
ReplyDeleteHuh! I posted that twice:)
ReplyDeleteDunno, I just say no thanks and hang up. The girl calls every two weeks or so.
brain -- veddy curious! I wonder if other people are getting calls like this... BTW, I took down the dupe post...
ReplyDeleteBefore the gas prices went sky high, Ford kept calling me to buy my Ford F150 pickup and offering me an incentive on a new truck. I got maybe 3 calls and each time I said no thanks.
ReplyDeleteogpv -- it sounds like a sign of the desperation to come
ReplyDelete