Car park multi-tasking - it doesn't happen

I'm a regular multi-storey car park user, and I like to have at least the approximate right change ready when I leave, to make the exiting procedure as quick as possible.

It's not hard to work out from the card you get when you enter, how much it will cost, and it's nice to briefly exchange pleasantries with the people who occupy the kiosk - a thankless task at the best of times.

The whole process never takes more than eight to ten seconds, though you can make it take longer. Recently a driver in front of me made it to the kiosk, before rummaging for a while for the parking card.

This took about 30 seconds - no big deal.

I could see that the driver needed another rummage for cash to pay the parking fee. This took another 30 seconds - again, no big deal.

Except, as was explained at the kiosk later, the driver's two credit cards were invalid, and they were offered up because it was found that there wasn't enough money in the purse to pay the fee.

So, after a few minutes, out came a cheque book, which was stamped by the parking person prior to the driver filling out the details. With the cheque book going to and fro several times, the elapsed time was now about seven minutes.

Fortunately, there was a good interview on the radio, so I didn't begrudge this time as much as the by now heavily beeping drivers stacked up behind me.

Eventually, after a receipt was taken, the car finally managed to go on its way and despite the extra nine-ish minutes taken, my loose change was still enough to pay my fee and I waved bye-bye.

Later I worked out that if the car-park had been full, it would have taken something like 30 hours to empty, if everyone had been like that driver.

If there'd been a fire, it would have been goodnight nurse.

I've come accross the same phenomenon before at the supermarket, where no effort is taken to find even a purse or wallet during the checkout process until the final amount is shown on the screen and our shopper has looked through the printout to note all the specials - with a trolleyful, this can take an age.

Only when all this done, is the cash, credit-card, chequebook, even looked for, and though it doesn't take eight to ten minutes to do this, like my car-parking scenario, it is a pain, and it's just about always executed by the gender normally associated with highly evolved multi-tasking.

It's all part of life's rich tapestry, I guess, so I don't complain too much, as I'm often hurried along in similar queues by my wife when she catches me reading a till-side magazine. That's the sort of magazine I'm thinking of taking with me, just in case there's not a decent interview on the radio when I next try to leave a multi-storey car park.