Blocked Off

So last week we had like a...repaving? company come to repave our parking lot.
But they chose to only repave/repaint the section in front of our store and then the next section of stalls after that. 

Which brought immediate problems because they'd blocked off the main entrance to the store with caution tape.

And the setup for the section our store is on...includes having the ability for cars to drive along the storefronts. 

So to have tape preventing cars from doing that...while nice...didn't last long.
It wasn't long before someone drove through the yellow tape blocking off the road and that allowed an influx of people to come park in front of the store within the yellow tape part while the construction people were on break.
So when they came back they had to track down all the shoppers and tell them to move their cars so that they could repaint the road to mark stalls and such. 

They replaced the tape and everything.
But the next morning when we came into work...someone had driven through both barriers of tape...allowing people to drive through and park whichever way they wanted.
So the nice shiny yellow and white paint...didn't stay all shiny for long. *shakes head*

Me thinks they should have placed construction cones in front of the entrances so that cars would have an easier time seeing that the area was blocked off.

But today....
Today was more entertaining.
Because the repaving crew came back to repave the back half of our half of the parking lot.
And then repave the middle section of stalls/drive area that separates my store from the next store over.

And to do that. They once again used caution tape to block off the area they were working in.
Which meant that cars could no longer use the route in front of the store to drive through the area. 
As the middle section had been blocked off.

And to ensure that people couldn't miss the yellow tape, they borrowed a few of our carts and placed them in the way to form a barrier. 

But yah....it wasn't a well thought out plan.
Because when all was said and done...it only left about twelve stalls available to park in. 
And only one way in and out of the parking lot. 

And when half off those stalls got filled up with people working in the store...it didn't leave that many places at all for customers to park.
But the construction crew hadn't really put up any signs at all on how to direct people to go park in front of the store next to us.

No it was just this tiny little section of parking....

Which was not made at all for having cars be able to...well turn around...if there was no parking available in front of the store.
Which there wasn't most of the day. 

So it ended up being like a huge game of ring around the rosie for all the cars coming in as they'd pull into the lot....see the barrier that prevented them from continuing to drive along the store fronts, they'd turn into the section of stalls...to be dead ended there...and then would have to K-Turn, U-turn, back out of that area to get back to the front of the road in order to exit the parking lot and take the long way around to go park in front of the other store front. 

Like...if I was in charge of repaving...I probably would have worked my way from the back of the parking lot up to the front.
And I would have ensure there was two exits so that cars wouldn't get bottlenecked trying to a) find parking or b) get out of the lot.

I can only hope that they at least unblock the drive through part of the road so that cars can drive along the front of the store tomorrow.
Because I doubt customers will be happy to be confronted with super mini parking lot multiple days in a row.
Especially if the construction people are only going to come once a week to do parts of the parking lot.

*shakes head* So much chaos.
But yah...I do have to say it was amusing to see multiple cars repeat the same mistake time after time after time. 
Definitely kept the day more interesting.
And also kept foot traffic down within the store, which is always nice when it's a slower day because that allows us to get more tasks done. 

I am surprised that more customers didn't try to complain to us about the state of the parking lot.
Then again, probably most of them realized there was nothing we could do about the issue since we aren't construction people. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi