How to Beat the System and Get your Christmas Shopping Done

Christmas shopping two days before Christmas. Dumb

Christmas shopping two days before Christmas, in the Lincoln Park/Gold Coast Area (motto: We have all these really big stores, really bad streets, and scarce parking). Really Dumb

I live a mile and a half from this epicenter of disaster. All of humanity seems to descend onto this one area of chicago. The Chicagoans know not to go to Michigan Avenue, they come here instead.

A mile and a half. Took one hour to drive. However, the advantage to living in this area is that you know that they watch the parking lots. If you park in one stores lot (say Crate and Barrel) and then proceed to walk across the street to another store (say Banana Republic). They will not hesistate in calling the tow truck. I've seen it happen. And I've laughed while watching it happen. But I am a college educated individual. I'm halfway through law school. I'm smart enough to develop a strategy to beat this dastardly system.

This strategy is called the two door free parking strategy. You should try it yourselves the next time you have a parking issue:

It's quite simple: most of these big stores have two doors on opposite ends of their locations. Their parking lot and those pugnacious parking lot mavens tend to be on one side, but not on the other. Mwhahaha. In one door and surreptitiously out the other.

2 hours later, I'm done with my Christmas shopping. And my car is still in a prime parking place under the watchful, yet dimwitted, eyes of the parking lot monitors.

Thank you Crate and Barrel.