If it Were Smoke’s #20, Then What?
Me thinks Home Depot is shooting themselves in the foot.
A popular, unofficial Saturday night car show at a Home Depot parking lot in Cedar Park will have to move because crowds are taking up customer spaces, company officials said.“It’s regrettable,” said Home Depot spokesman Don Harrison, “but the lot is for our customers to park. They come first.”
The show, which happens by word-of-mouth every Saturday night and is not sponsored or advertised, has been around 10 years, first at a Round Rock restaurant parking lot, then at the Home Depot lot at Parmer Lane and RM 1431. Now, car clubs are scouring the Austin area for a spot to move their display of up to 300 classic and muscle cars, trucks, boats and motorcycles. The shows, where owners walk around and admire one another’s vehicles for several hours in the early evening, must go on, supporters say.
“It was something we looked forward to at the end of the week. It was a free socialization event for all of us in love with cars,” said Kate Morris, a member of the Mustang Owners Club of Austin.
Gary Alexander, who attends the show almost weekly to show off his sea blue 1966 Volkswagen bus, took Home Depot’s decision personally. “I’ll just shop at Lowe’s from now on. Home Depot took away an important part of this community,” he said (as Jimmie Johnson smiled).
One commenter on the linked story noted a “huge new Lowes/Shopping Center parking lot” that may be available for the event (J.J. laughs and CEO Robert A. Niblock joins him).
Lowes Home Improvement Centers, Home Depot, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
Shooting themselves in the foot is right. They (Home Depot) ought to be embarrassed by the whole thing.
Hey nice gravatar Tina Renee, glad I’m not the only one in the racing blog community that uses them.
Anyway, truth be told this won’t have much effect. the story notes the crowds at these events got a large boost by being features in the local paper recently.
As a result the Home Depot was “host” to as many as 800-900 cars not there to buy hammers and 2 x 4’s.
I see their point.
But, obviously, I took my satirical potshot at them.