Thats what the police told us. For quiite some time alot of us car guys would meet every saturday night at a parking lot in Kemah, TX. Always enjoyed meeting new "corvette brothers". This is one of those mega lots that have many stores. The place is huge. Well, Tagret, a retail store, who owns the parking lot, decides for some uknown reason, they don't want us meeting there any more. They call the local police and tell everybody to leave. This is Targets call, but they lost alot of buisness in doing so. Alot of the guys' wives would shop there while we talked.
Well we started meeting in another part of town. Clear Lake i think.
Been there probably about a year. Last night while we were standing around talking, in come the police posse. They came and ask "if we got the word". I said no sir. Officer says "the show's over, the owner of the lot ask us to come clear everyone out.
Oh well guess i'll be stayin home on saturday nights. Anybody else get kicked to the curb.

 

Are these meets just Corvettes?
How many cars would you say attend these meets?
You said the wives would go shopping while you guys meet up.
I would be willing to say that some of the customers complained and that is why the store had you guys removed, Around here the guys meet up after the stores closes and the police do check it out, But they don't ask anyone to leave.
You guys must of had quite a few cars there.
As far as Target losing you guys as customers won't make a difference.

 

I agree, these businesses are doing more harm to themselves. I'm sure they have their version and yes, it's their property, but ya know people standing around tend to spend money at friendly places.

Having said that, so long no one is trashing the place, hot rodding or speeding around or causing a disturbance to the other customers, I just don't get it. When I was a younger officer it was the norm to see the crowds like this on weekends. I've written off two chain stores that my wife and kids just laugh at me, but they won't get one penny of mine ever again!

 

I obviously wasn't there but I've seldom seen anyone ask the police to get involved without a reason.

All the cars up front by the store blocking customers??

Too many burnouts in the parking lot??

Sixteen stereos all blasting different kinds of music??

Gettting asked to leave two different places indicates a repeat offender.

just saying.....................

 

That sucks... But moving forward it seems the lesson learned is that without permission, you get asked to leave. We have many of those formal/informal get togethers around town, some on Friday night, some Saturday mornings, but all of the events have permission to be there. A few "partner up" with an auto shop, or restaurant in the lot and most if not all of the attendees will stop in and purchase a drink or get one of their cars serviced there from time to time as a good will jesture. Some of the establishments have even offered discount coupons for breakfast on the Saturday morning meets.

Good behavior at the event is critical, as is leaving it in the same or better condition as when you arrived. If any of your events are advertised to the public via flyers, etc. ask the lot owners if you can add their name as a sponsor, and if any of the guys are handy with a camera, photos of some of the more photgenic cars with their building in the background can work wonders.

Good luck with your new site.

 

Down here in Sunny Retirement SW Florida it's usually about liability and the crowd scaring the HE!! out of a few blue hairs. We do find places to gather but with prior permission, sometoimes city parking lots downtown.

 

Find a local restaurant with a large parking lot (maybe a Denny's in a bigger shopping mall). Call and ask to talk to the manager. Tell the manager that you have a Corvette Club and you want to find a place that can accomodate all your members Corvettes, maybe even get a part of the parking lot just for your Corvettes (so nobody scratches them), and ask if the restaurant has any large group discounts. You might end up getting 10% off for all your members, and a place to meet up with your buddies. I would think most restaurants finish their dinner rush by 8pm, so if you wanted to use their parking lot from say 8pm to 10pm, most places would be fighting for your business. Now if you get 100 Corvettes there and only 5 guys go inside to buy a coke, then you might not get invited back. Having a Corvette club might also attract more business for the restaurant. I know the local greasy spoons by me that have cruise nights will get a lot of business from people who want to come and look at the classic cars, then grab an Italian Beef and fries. The last idea I have is to call local Chevy dealerships and see if they can sponser a Corvette night if their dealership has large enough a parking lot. Maybe they can offer coffee and snacks, and in return their serivce department will get a chance to make a good impression on many future customers.

Look at this as an opportunity to find a much nicer place to have your Corvette club meetings.

 

Do it at a local drive in restaurant and if you buy food the restaurant will love it.

 

I would talk to the manager of Target and the other place,cops tend to bend the truth and the stores may not have made those requests at all! Best to have permission in writing to show such over zealist Gestopo types.

 

The same here in Louisville Ky. Target complained about a monthly car cruise. It's a huge parking lot with several stores. Target is at one end of the lot, DQ is at the other end. The cruise is allowed to continue as long as everybody stays on the DQ end.

 

Usually these stores like to play the "insurance regulations" game. A group of guys, 10/15/20, or more, evening, when the store is closed, decides to drive their cars there, pop the hoods, and admire everyones vehicles, no hanky-panky, just looking and talking, but all of a sudden, insurance enters the picture. So my question is...I park my car at your big-box, do some shopping, come outside, and someone has hit and dented my car in YOUR parking lot, shouldn't YOUR insurance pay me?

There's a couple of places in my area who allow it, one place I don't understand, but they do allow it, is..."Hobby-Lobby," Pep-Boys, well, we all understand why they would allow it. There are places, just shop around.

 

It is not the property damage issue of insurance , the owner is not liable for those actions, they are liable for liability if someone falls, trips, hurts themselves etc. Most parking lots have restrictions about hanging around on their property and not there to shop, and usually it is some person who wanted to park their car where the show cars are and could not , and be damn they have rights. I agree look around and find a place that is happy to have you .

 

You're correct Bobby, and I'm sure they can always pull out the old "loitering/trespassing" law. It's not hard to find a business that will accompany your request.

 

I wonder if they think they will gain more customers by getting rid of you guys? Some customers may not want to shop at the other stores on that particular day that you are there. Even though a few of your wives were shopping, you end up costing them more money. Plus, it may not be Target's initial problem. The other stores could be upset, and filed complaints with Target.

 

Most businesses don't want to incur the liability of a car gathering on their property, and I guess you really can't blame them. Unfortunately, all it takes is one knucklehead injuring someone and you know they'd get sued.

 

Always ask the owners first.

Our local Corvette Club is sponsored by Hooters and a Local Chevy Dealer.

We meet at Hooters once a month for a Cruise-in. They have even blocked/reserved spaces for us. They also bring us wings for other gatherings.

 

Exactly!!!....This summer I noticed lots of kids hanging in a local business parking lot at night...I also noticed every night when they left there would be copious amounts of trash left in the parking lot...fast food cups, sacks, etc..all while there was a trash can within 50 feet of where they were congregating...Hell, one night someone tipped the fecking trash can over making even a bigger mess .....One night I stopped in and strongly suggested they start cleaning the place up before they left, pointing out several items of trash already piling up....Of course they all said "That's not mine"....I told them I didnt care who left it there...if they didnt start cleaning the place up it was only going to be a matter of time before the business owner got tired of cleaning up their crap every morning and we would get the word to enforce "no night parking" and they would lose their "watering hole"....Sure as chit, about a week later the business owner erected "no night parking" signs and asked us to start enforcing it...

Im not saying this is the case in the OPs story, but it's certainly a possibility....

 

This is a very valid point. My wife was involved in a small fender bender at a local grocery store. Thinking that since the woman who hit our car blew a stop sign, slam dunk we win right? Wrong! Private parking lot with a separate channel of insurance claims. Cops didn't even issue a ticket, rather an accident report/citation.

Our Corvette club meets at a local Target' for our morning monthly runs, however at the most we get about 25 cars and then only hang around 30 minutes at 7AM until everyone shows up. We congregate at the far end of the parking lot, nowhere near the front of the store and have not had any problems.

We just secured a new monthly meeting restaurant that has a nice parking lot. I coordinated the restaurant and the manager loves the fact that we bring in 60+ customers for dinner one Tuesday each month. However, no matter how often you ask your fellow Corvette brothers to behave, you always have few who want to light them up and show off their new exhaust, etc. at the end of each meeting. I bet the other patrons really enjoy it.

 

No, it wasn't just corvettes. There were many different cars old and new. At the cruise in at Target, we were no where near the front of the store. the cars parked between a Chic Filet and another resteraunt. All the eating places wanted us there. Some of the guys went and talked to Target about it but they wanted no part of it. They even posted a bunch of signs. As for the place in clear lake, we parked away from the main lot of Hooters and other eating places. Again we had the blessing of the reseraunts. Hooters would even come out and take pics. I never saw any hot rodding,trashing the place or anything like that.

 

Everyone must keep in mind, when you and your group congregate in some parking lot, you're doing so on someone else's private property. As such, you either have to be invited or been given permission to do so. Don't assume you have that permission just because you're not causing a ruckus. Have fun, but do the right thing and get their permission.