Honor’s experience with the delightful folks at Henderson Pak ‘n Save
We’re all aware that council-officiated mobility parking spaces are reasonably well monitored (or are they?!) but what about those mobility parks which are on private property? Those in malls, restaurants, or in Honor K‘s case, supermarkets? What happens when people abuse them, or even worse, when those paid to keep tabs on them, don’t seem to give a toss about who’s parking where? It’s a problem that Honor found first-hand upon a recent visit to the Pak ‘n Save on Lincoln Road, in Henderson.
We were parked on the Mobility Carparks there, while hubby did the shopping (he’s able-bodied, I’m disabled, but parking there gives me the chance to access the shop if I need to, given the extra room to offload my crutches, etc.). My mobility card was on the dashboard. While waiting, I saw several motorists stop in the surrounding mobility spaces who looked quite able-bodied and had no mobility card. Finally, I could take no more.
Click the link below to continue reading Honor’s story…
I beckoned a passing staff member who had a kid with him who also wore the Pak’n'Save uniform (maybe a schoolkid who worked there part-time in the holidays), and asked the older man if there was anything they could do about these freeloaders using the disabled spaces. I pointed out one man, sitting in a car across from me, who had a second earlier stood outside his car while sending a text, and I said that he didn’t look disabled, and didn’t have a Mobility Card.
“I know,” was the staff member’s reply, “It’s not my problem.”
Keeping my cool, the only reply I could make was, “But you work here!”, to which he retorted, “Oh, well, I might get the Security Guard to have a talk with him later.” With a dismissive wave of his hand, he and his child companion were gone.
Just then, the offending driver drove off, probably spooked by my pointing finger as I was talking to the Pak’n'Save worker about him. As this staff member was still not far from my car, I said, “Oh well, there you go, I guess it’s not a problem now, is it?”. Then, noticing the young fellow in hoots of laughter at the situation, I added (quite loudly, as they were by this time some distance from my car, “Why should disabled people shop at Pak’n'Save when you treat us like this?” That was the end of the exchange, I put my car window up and thought no more about it.
(I should add here that I have asked this shop before – politely, once – if they would consider putting chairs around the shop, so that people like me can sit for a while as we get our groceries, but I was told such a move would be a fire hazard – that’s a joke – the place is the size of a small city, you’d be very unlucky to trip over a chair there, even while evacuating in the dark for a fire).
Five minutes later, as I was still sitting in my car minding my own business, a senior staff member came over to my car. “You harassing my staff?”
I had to ask him to repeat himself as I was so amazed, but I told him no, I had not been harassing my staff, unless you called expressing my opinion of the blase attitude of his staff to people who cheat on disabled carparks ‘harassment’. I couldn’t resist adding that the last time I looked, New Zealand was a democracy and we still had a right to express ourselves (I know it was sarcastic, but he took a very smarmy and sarcastic attitude with me). He reminded me that the people who do this are CUSTOMERS, to which I replied that disabled people are customers, too. Looking very dismissive of this point, he went on to say that he had been told I had sworn at his staff. I calmly told him this wasn’t true, to which he replied, “Well, as long as you don’t do it every week”. I replied that I hadn’t ‘done it’ (swearing) at all, he walked away, I once again wound up my window, and that was it.
What do others think? I realise it’s not the job of staff to warn off offenders, but to say “Its not my problem” seems like awful customer relations to me, let alone being ‘harassed’ (a more appropriate word for Pak’n'Save’s actions towards me, I think, rather than the other way around) for complaining. It seems to me this organisation puts profits of able-bodied customers before the comfort or convenience of the disabled. As one in five of us are disabled, I see this as a serious mistake.
Thoughts?
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Yeah I have had to deal with this, they say it alot, The Warehouse are more onto it, "It's not my problem" needs to be changed to "Thank you for letting me know, I will deal with it", if I was a supervisor I would have walked into the shop, grabbed their intercom and very loudly and publicly humiliated the person by saying "The customer whose car is a … and number plate is …, please move your car now or be towed!"
I'm able bodied, but am hard of hearing.
One time I was at the Mt Albert YMCA, when I noticed a man drive into the disabled car park, hop out of his car dressed in his workout clothes, and casually walk into the YMCA.
After thinking about it, I went into the building and found the man, who was in the gym working out, and politely asked him to move his car.
He complied once I had pointed out that he wasn't particularly disabled. He was a little shitty about it, but credit to him as I followed him out of the building and watched him move his car.
Pak'n'Save need to pull their head in.
Firstly I don't believe in using mobility parks by association. If your husband isn't disabled then I don't feel you should be parking there waiting for him. Mind you if the parks were empty you could park further away and drive over if you needed to go into the store. In my opinion Pak n Save stores are all lax about this. Seems though that their head office may be a bit more reasonable about things. I think I recall one of the stores in their franchise was selling some of the ingredients it takes to make the drug "P" a year or so back. Public outrage directed at their head office put an end to it. Never mind the clowns in store, they all seem to be able to learn the "Pak N Save wave" pretty quick but perhaps have little intelligence or compassion with anything else. A generalisation I know but if the shoe fits… I don't shop with them any more because of this and the fact I read somewhere surveys showed they are no longer the cheapest. Take your dollars elsewhere I reckon. We are all consumers after all as they say. Leave their pseudo-disabled token parking to the lazy people who seem to be their preferred customers.
The Pak`n Save I sometimes use here in the middle of Hamilton has quite clear "We Will Clamp You" signs attached to the display your mobility card signs, that's enough to scare most people from taking advantage of the convenient parking, even me given past experience with being clamped!
Maybe that could be suggested, hang on, what am I saying… !%#!* NZ Wheel Clamping Co Ltd!
That said I think the clamping at this Pak`n Save is done by Pak`nSave staff.
Haha Matt I think I know which Pak N Save you mean… Mill St?
Westfirld Chartwell are good, they have designated security who go check ever Mobility park, you have no card?, you will find your car is going nowhere any time soon.
The other thing is I write down the car details and ring the watch tower, that person soon finds themselves paying a fine.
Hi Cassi, yep your onto to it, do you live in Hamilton as well?
Oh a slight correction about Hamilton's Mill Street PaknSave their notice actually says "Wheel Clamping Area" nice and clear anyway.
Hey Matt, yeah I do indeed and I caught a cop parked in a disabled park once.
We perhaps need a patched gang member to be paid to park right up against the back bumper of these lazy buggers.That would stop them. I had a stand up argument with a truckie last week for parking in a disabled park a week ago. Ended up having to leave before him because I had to go to work.
Here's a tip for all disabled folk who witness able bodied thieves stealing their mobility parking spaces… Especially where there is no enforcement… Complain to the property owner, supermarket manager, whoever, that the person illegally parking is committing an act of 'discrimination'. By not allowing for enforcement of mobility spaces, property owners are committing an offence as the Discrimination Act states an offence is committed 'by act or ommission'.
Therefore, a supermarket owner/manager is enabling an offence to be committed, therefore a party to the offence by ommission.
Petition your local MP to have ALL mobility parks nationally enforced for the use of those who pay for a permit, and enforcement requirements included in the Resource Management Act which requires these spaces be provided.
Or have stickers made up like we have saying "you block my space, you block my day". The stickers are the permanent kind which are a pain to remove but hopefully make the offender rethink parking in a disability park