To think it's grabby to

[Cobblersandhogwash]

have to insert your car registration plate when parking?

To my mind, a space has been paid for for a certain amount of time, regardless who uses it. They shouldn't get paid double if one driver doesn't use all their allotted time.

I used to give my tickets to other drivers if there was any time left. And now I can't.

You pay for two hours but stay for only one. Your problem.
The next guy comes along and parks in the same bay as you. He too must pay for his time on that land. Not greedy grabby or immoral at all.
Business. Not charity.
If you wish to avoid this conundrum park elsewhere.

You're conveniently ignoring the fact that the next hour for that parking bay has already been paid for. It doesn't matter who paid it. Immoral and greedy, business should be fair.

"you can park elsewhere"... well, where exactly?
In the nearest shopping center and completely abandon your local stores? What a great idea.

The pay-as-you leave is a much fairer option, even if some car parks are getting ludicrous.

Don't get me starting on hospital car parks.

Say you booked and prepaid a two night stay in a hotel. But due to an unforseen personal matter, and through no fault of the hotel you are forced to leave early.
Would you begrudge the hotel hiring out your room after you left to the next customer.....
Same principle applies.

Yes I would begrudge them. In fact, I would ask them to transfer the booking to someone else's name as an anonymous gift.

That would be good business as they'd get repeat custom from me.

You don't seem to understand that good business sense isn't just about grabbing more and more profit at every opportunity. That's a very primitive view of business.

It far more complex than that.

Yanbu

Why shouldn't someone make money on their land? It's not grabby, or does the business you are in give stuff away too?

It depends on the scenario, but charging commuters ££££££ for a rail ticket then ££ for parking on top is grabby. Particularly when it is increased by rpi on an annual basis.

If you don't like it park elsewhere. It's business. If you don't like the manner it is conducted vote with your feet.

I'm a lazy bugger but I would rather walk from a free on the road parking than pay to park near to the shops. I shop in the city centre on a Sunday when parking in council car parks is free.

Buster72, it's the norm now where I live.

And again, to say it's business is lazy and shows you don't really have a good understanding of business.

I still remember a woman practically jumping in front of my car, me slamming the brakes on and her demsnding my ticket.

I’d prepaid on the internet so had no ticket. It also only cost £2.40 to park all day ...

The ones around here check your numberplate on entry, but you pay when you leave so you only pay for the time you've used, which I think is fair.

Around here, people have decided they can use the passing places as car parks, wander off into the hills and leave their cars all day, which causes major problems when cars meet tractors, buses or wagons on the roads and have nowhere to pull in and let them pass!

I saw a car left for 48 hours the other week, in a passing spot that exists on a tight bend where you can't fit two large vehicles at the same time. He was very lucky his car ended up unscathed.

Shinygoldbauble

"Yes but if you go to a cafe and only eat half your meal they don't try to sell it to someone else."

You'd be (horribly) surprised. I had a summer job in a coffee shop when I was younger and some of the reusing that went on made me (the one that made me quit was when I saw a block of cheese from a dirty ploughmans plate have the teeth marks cut off so it could be reissued).

I tell myself now that it was just that one dodgy place in isolation, otherwise I'd never eat out again...!

People do vote with their feet, Buster. Which is causing a problem round here. The machines in the car park used to not give change. But people could pass their ticket on. If you were only popping in to bank a cheque, you pay for an hour, but you could pass the ticket on. Then they put in shiny new machines. Still can't give change, but can take your number plate. So you still pay over the odds if you don't have the right change, but now you can't pass it on. People are not going to the local butchers or greengrocers as much, but using the big free supermarket to park and then do their shopping there.
The council is wondering what to do about encouraging people to use the town to shop. Well, a good start might have been to do, say, first half hour free, and replace the old machines with ones capable of giving change as well as taking my number plate. But they didn't and local businesses are paying the price.
Sometimes it's not as simple as just saying 'It's a business, if you don't like it, vote with your feet...'

The example of the hotel room doesn't work because when you purchase the room for the night you get clean linens, security, room service, washing stuff, towels. If you leave early the hotel must clean and prepare your room so it's reasonable that they lower their overheads by using each room every night.

Parking space land is fixed price with no overheads per turnover of customer. Security, rent, rates are the same whether one car uses the space or twenty in the course of the day. It would seem very cynical sharp practice to develop your business model based on the "extras" you get from overpayments, especially if those overpayments are engineered by you from preventing ticket swaps and not giving change.

i suppose you could make a super-lame argument that more cars over the tarmax degrades the surface more quickly...

but overall i agree that modern business is not this weird Adam Smith-y red in tooth and claw maximisation of profit at expense of brand.