Valentine’s Day: A Lesson

On Sunday night, the wife and I decided that we’d celebrate Valentine’s Day together at a local restaurant that we’ve been a patron of for years. Having booked well in advance, and somehow managing to find someone to watch the children on what must surely be the babysitter’s busiest night of the year (and at a price that even a taxi driver on New Year’s Eve would find laughable), we were all set for our romantic evening together.

You can understand our dismay, then, on arriving and finding that their sizeable car park was completely full, with cars end to end and blocking each other in. Yet we were surprised to see that the restaurant itself was half empty. Being slap bang in the centre of town, and considering the number of people out for the same reason as us, finding another place to park was nigh on impossible. After driving around for 45 minutes, we eventually gave up and ended the night at the kitchen table, with a curry and a bottle of wine.

While we of course rather put out at having our evening ruined, what was most upsetting was seeing a local business, which relies so heavily on this kind of seasonal trade, suffering at the hands of a small number of selfish individuals. With the current state economy having such an effect on the leisure industry, it’s exactly this kind of thing that can pitch a struggling business into the red.

Car park enforcement is too often seen as driving away custom, but instances like this make you realise that while overenthusiastic ticketing draws headlines, it is the actions of the general public that cause the real issues. This is why fair and effective enforcement should be seen as a business staple, not an occasional luxury.