Deeper Underground

Show me a suburban shopping centre car park on a weekend morning and I’ll show torture worse than the ninth circle of hell. Sans Souci Central is no exception but there’s a secret to by-passing the worst offenders. I don’t want to tell you… but I will.

The details
Sans Souci Central is a bustling shopping centre in the heart of the tiny suburb of Sans Souci. It’s one of those residential/commercial centres popping up everywhere right now and it’s one of the few that actually works well. The centre itself has a couple of cafes, a thai restaurant, two hairdressers (actually one hairdresser and one barber), nail salon and supermarket and bottleshop. The carpark is fairly standard for a suburban shopping center. There are 246 spaces, all 90-degree angled (perpendicular). There are two ways to enter the shops from the carpark; via the travelator located in the centre of the carpark and via the elevator, which is (almost) hidden on the side. There is a sign to help you find the elevator but first you need to find the sign. I find there’s something peculiar about the signage throughout the carpark, I assume they were made for looking at but no matter how many times my eyes see them, my brain simply forgets they exist.

Parking
Most days you’ll find a decent park easily at Sans Souci Central but drop by on a Saturday or Sunday morning and the place is positively swarming with all the worst parking offenders you can think of. The fed-up, double-parkers, the super slow geriatrics and – the worst offenders by-far – the over-optimistic parkers. You know the ones who whack on their indicator as soon as they drive in and won’t move until a parking spot opens up, oblivious to the mess they’re causing behind them. On days like that you need a secret weapon and here it is – there is a second level!

Okay, a second level might not seem like a huge secret but the unmemorable signs and the general commotion means the ramp to the lower level is easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it. Truth be told, it actually took me over a year before I realised it was there. Yes I know I might be slow on the uptake but I’m certain most people don’t know about it because there is a maximum of ten cars parked down there at any one time. What’s even better is there’s almost always a parking spot outside the elevator. This is great news because the ramp up to the travelators can be a pain and secondly, the elevator opens up directly into the centre (right outside the toilets for those of you with small children or small bladders).

Snack-bar status
There might be other spots on the top level Sans Souci Central that meet the traditional definition of a snack-bar park better than the lower level, elevator spot but on a busy day it is absolutely your best option. There are, however, two main issues that hold it back. Firstly, it’s a reasonable distance from the parking spot to the trolley bay and secondly, if the elevator is out of order you’ll need to use the ramp. True, these issues are only problems if you’re pushing a trolley full of groceries or are carrying a case of beer, but as a person who does both of those things regularly, I can only bring myself to give it a snack-bar status of low. Still, if you ever find yourself at Sans Souci Central, avoid the infernal top level and head down deeper to the peace and calm of the secret lower level.