The Cabazon outlets are charging for parking now and employees hate it

(Yelp)

Paying to park your car always blows. I mean, you have driven to wherever you have gone to buy things and spend money on food – but, before you can fork over money to businesses, you have to first cough up coin just for the privilege of leaving your car in a parking space. Unfortunately, paid parking lots are on the rise in the United States and the latest is at the Desert Hills outlets in Cabazon. Naturally, no one, especially those who work there, seems very happy about it.

While there remains some free parking at the shopping complex, the recently constructed garage now charges $5 in order to park.  And while paying to park to spend money sucks, laying down cash in order to work your retail job really blows, so workers at the outlets weren’t pleased after they were issued a letter from the Desert Hills Premium Outlets Management team on July 2.

Desert Hills claims that the new paid parking  policy is to “accommodate consumer demand and improve the overall customer experience” and to allow customers “more time to shop their favorite luxury brands.”

Employees, who now say they have to either pay or park very far away, feel differently.

Employees have started an online petition to get rid of the parking fee on change.org, demanding that Simon Property Group, “Provide free and unlimited parking for any and all persons, both employees and consumers wishing to park their vehicles on parking structure and/or mall premices (sic).”

As of Sunday morning, it had more than 3,000 signatures.

The petition is also asking people to leave Yelp reviews.  Recent one-star reviews call the outlets “money hungry” and claim that “pure greed is ruining a wonderful mall.”