Americans Pay for Parking at Places That Make Them Pay

Immigrant shocked stores charge to access stores

The Money You Pay to Give Places Money

LOS ANGELES, CA – Akosua Mensah drove to a shopping mall and discovered she had to pay $6 to park before she could spend money at stores in the mall. The 29-year-old from Ghana sat in her car processing this loop: “You charge me to access the place where I give you more money?” she said to the parking attendant who’d seen this confusion before, just never articulated so clearly. “That’s the fee,” he confirmed. “To park.” “To shop,” she corrected. “I’m paying admission to stores. Like stores are museums. Except museums have things worth seeing and don’t charge you twice.”

In Accra, stores that wanted your business provided free parking because they understood that charging customers to access your business was stupid. In Los Angeles, malls charge for parking, then stores inside charge for goods, creating a two-tier payment system where you pay for proximity before you pay for products. “You’ve monetized approach,” Mensah marveled. “I’m paying for the opportunity to give you money. This is the most capitalist thing I’ve seen, and I watched a documentary about credit card debt.”

When Access Becomes a Product

According to the International Parking Institute, Americans spend approximately $25 billion annually on parking—not on destinations, not on experiences, just on storing cars near places they want to be. Mensah paid $6 for two hours of parking at a mall where she spent $40 on items she could’ve bought online for the same price with free shipping. “I paid $6 for the privilege of physically shopping,” she calculated. “Online shopping is cheaper when you factor in parking fees. You’ve made actual shopping more expensive than virtual shopping by charging me to exist near your store. This is how retail dies—by charging customers for access.”

Jerry Seinfeld said, “What’s the deal with paying for parking?” Mensah wants to know what’s the deal with paying for parking at places whose entire business model depends on people coming to park. The mall needs customers. Customers need parking. Instead of providing it free to attract customers, they charge for it, reducing customers, then wonder why malls are dying. “You’re deterring your own customers with fees,” Mensah explained to a mall manager. “I came here to shop. You charged me $6 before I spent anything. Now I’m thinking ‘Is shopping here worth $6 more than shopping elsewhere?’ Usually the answer is no.”

The Hospital That Charges Patients to Park at Emergency Room

The most dystopian example: Mensah’s friend paid $15 to park while visiting the emergency room. “You charged someone in medical crisis for parking?” Mensah asked the hospital administrator. “It’s a private lot,” he explained. “It’s a hospital,” she countered. “People come here because they’re sick or dying. And you charge them for parking? What if they can’t afford it? Do they just bleed in the parking lot entrance? This is evil. You’ve monetized medical emergencies. The ambulance should include parking validation because clearly you’ve lost all sense of human decency.”

Dave Chappelle said, “Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.” Mensah had to laugh at hospitals charging dying people for parking because crying wouldn’t change that hospitals have decided even emergencies deserve fees. Her friend’s ER visit: $2,400. Her parking: $15. The parking felt more insulting because it was preventable, unnecessary, and purely exploitative. “You have health insurance to cover medical costs,” Mensah noted. “But nobody has parking insurance. So you pay out of pocket to access healthcare you need. This country is dystopian.”

The administrator defended it: “Parking maintenance costs money.” “So does healthcare,” Mensah replied, “but you don’t charge people $15 to walk through the door. Oh wait—you do. It’s called parking. You’ve just hidden the entrance fee in parking costs. Nobody questions it because ‘parking costs money.’ But why should patients pay it? Build it into hospital costs. Make health insurance cover it. Don’t charge people $15 to park while visiting their dying relative. That’s not parking—that’s emotional extortion.”

When Every Destination Becomes a Toll Road

Mensah discovered paying for parking is ubiquitous. Restaurants charge for parking. Gyms charge for parking. Some apartment complexes charge residents for parking at their own homes. “You pay rent and parking separately?” she asked her friend who lives in a complex charging $100 monthly for parking. “Where are you supposed to park if you live there?” “Street parking,” her friend said. “But that’s unreliable.” “So you pay extra for guaranteed parking at your own home?” “Yes.” “This is a scam,” Mensah concluded. “You’re paying twice for housing—once for the unit, once for parking. They’ve disaggregated housing into components they charge separately. Next they’ll charge for access to stairs or use of the front door.”

Chris Rock said, “You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy.” Mensah knows America is crazy when people pay to park at their own apartments. “Back home, if a landlord charged separately for parking, we’d assume they’re running a scam,” she explained. “Parking is part of housing. You don’t itemize housing components and charge separately. That’s like charging separately for walls. ‘The apartment is $1,000 monthly. Walls are an additional $100. Ceiling optional at $75.’ You people accept this because you’ve normalized being nickel-and-dimed for everything.”

The Free Parking That Requires Purchase Validation

Some stores offer “free parking with validation”—meaning you park free if you buy something. “That’s not free parking,” Mensah corrected the sign. “That’s conditional parking. Free means no conditions. This is ‘buy something or pay for parking.’ You’ve made parking free only for paying customers, which means it’s not free—it’s a discount on parking included with purchase. Call it what it is: purchase-dependent parking.” Her friend didn’t see the problem. Mensah saw only problems. “You’ve trained people to think parking should cost money. It shouldn’t. Stores want customers. Parking brings customers. Free parking should be default, not a reward for spending money.”

Bill Burr said, “I’m not going to apologize for being right.” Mensah’s not apologizing for thinking charging for parking is stupid. “Every parking fee is a barrier to business. You’re charging me to access your store. I could shop online—free parking at my house. I could shop elsewhere—maybe they have free parking. Instead, you charge me $6, bet I’ll pay it, and hope I spend enough that I forget I paid for parking. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I pay $6 for parking, don’t find what I want, and leave having paid for nothing. You got $6. I got frustration. Nobody wins except parking companies.”

The worst offender: restaurants in downtown areas charging for parking or validating only with minimum purchases. Mensah went to a restaurant requiring $30 minimum for parking validation. Her meal was $25. “I’m ordering more food I don’t want to avoid paying for parking?” she asked. “Or I pay for parking for a $25 meal, making it effectively $31. Either way, the parking fee influences my ordering. This is manipulation. You’re making me spend more or pay separately. I should be ordering based on hunger, not parking economics.”

When Cities Design for Cars Then Charge for Car Storage

Mensah realized American cities designed everything around cars—wide roads, distant destinations, car-dependent infrastructure—then charge people to park the cars they required. “You built cities where cars are mandatory,” she told a city planner. “Public transit is limited. Walking is dangerous or impractical. So people need cars. Then you charge them to park those cars. You’ve created car dependency, then monetized it. This is brilliant and evil. You’ve trapped people in a system—need car to access city, need parking to use car—and charged them at every step.”

Amy Schumer said, “I’m not saying I’m lazy, I’m saying I’m energy efficient.” American cities aren’t space efficient—they’re profit-maximizing. Every parking spot is revenue. Every meter is income. Every lot is monetized. Nobody questions why parking costs money when parking is necessary for accessing car-dependent cities. “In walkable cities, you don’t need parking,” Mensah observed. “But American cities aren’t walkable. They’re drivable. Then they charge you for driving. You’ve created problems and sold solutions. The problem: car-dependent infrastructure. The solution: paid parking everywhere. Both make people miserable. Both generate profit. Neither serves people.”

The Parking App That Charges Convenience Fees

Parking apps charge $0.35-0.50 convenience fees on top of parking rates. “Convenient for whom?” Mensah asked while paying $6.00 parking plus $0.45 convenience fee. “I’m paying extra to pay? The convenience fee is for using the app that the parking company requires? This is a fee for accessing the system they mandate. You’ve eliminated parking meters, forced everyone to use apps, then charged convenience fees for the convenience you eliminated by removing meters. You’re charging people for the transition you forced on them. This is late capitalism. Everything is monetized. Even payment is monetized.”

Kevin Hart said, “Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work.” Parking companies want profit but don’t want to maintain meters. So they force apps, charge convenience fees, and call it innovation. “Innovation would be free parking,” Mensah suggested. “Or reasonable parking. Or parking costs built into store prices so customers don’t think about it. Instead, you’ve made parking a separate visible cost that annoys everyone but generates profit, so it stays. The convenience fee is the most honest part—it’s convenient for parking companies who profit from every transaction.”

Mensah’s most frustrating discovery: some parking apps charge cancellation fees. She paid for two hours, left after one hour, and couldn’t get refunded. “I paid for unused time,” she protested. “Why can’t I cancel?” “System limitation,” customer service explained. “Not limitation—decision,” Mensah corrected. “You could allow cancellations. You choose not to because keeping my money for time I didn’t use is profitable. I paid for two hours. Used one. You keep the extra hour’s payment. This is theft disguised as policy.”

When Parking Costs More Than the Destination

Last week, Mensah paid $8 for parking to visit a museum with $5 admission. “Parking costs more than the museum,” she observed. “I paid more to store my car than to see art. This is backwards. The valuable thing—culture, education, art—costs less than the utilitarian thing—parking. You’ve made access more expensive than experience. Something is very wrong with these priorities.” The museum agreed but didn’t control the parking lot, which was privately owned and profit-maximizing regardless of the museum’s educational mission.

Trevor Noah said, “In Africa, we don’t have the luxury of charging ourselves to exist in places.” Americans charge themselves to exist everywhere—parking fees are existence fees for car-dependent places. Mensah’s observation: “You’ve normalized paying to be places. Not paying for experiences or goods—paying for proximity. For access. For the right to exist near destinations. Parking fees are space rental for storing your car while you exist somewhere. You’re renting space constantly—housing, parking, storage units—because land in America is commodity, not common resource. Every square foot is monetized. Want to shop? Pay for parking. Want to eat? Pay for parking. Want to exist in public? Pay for parking. You’ve privatized space and charged admission to life.”

When asked if she’ll adjust to parking fees, Mensah laughed while choosing online shopping with free delivery. “I’ll avoid paying for parking by avoiding places that charge for parking,” she said. “This is how malls die—by charging for access, you reduce access, reducing business, justifying higher parking fees to compensate for lower traffic, creating a death spiral. But nobody questions it because ‘parking costs money.’ It does. But why should customers pay it? Build it into costs. Make parking free. Attract customers. Succeed. Or keep charging, watch online shopping win, and wonder why retail is dying. Meanwhile, back home, stores want your business enough to not charge you admission via parking fees. They understand the goal is getting customers inside spending money, not collecting $6 before you even enter. But American capitalism is advanced—you’ve figured out how to charge people twice: once for parking, once for goods. Congratulations. Your reward is empty malls with expensive parking nobody uses.”

SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Aisha Muharrar)

DATE: 11/21/2025