The SNOWBIRDS are here baby (rental, credit card, buying)

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Bungle

Maybe use the self checkout or switch lanes?

My Fry's doesn't let lines get more than two people deep. They're awesome about opening lanes if they see you waiting. Even on the busiest weekend morning I've only ever waited a minute or two.

Ran into just this thing today at Sams Club, in the Self Checkout lanes. Believe it or don't 3 lanes tied up by obvious snowbirds who had NO IDEA how to operate them so the lines grew as they flailed around until an employee showed up to help them (one at a time of course) to get the concept. The reason I know they were snowbirds is the employee first asked "do you know how these work?" Answer: "No, we're not from here".

The question I sooooo badly wanted to ask but bit my tongue is "Then why the heck are you in the self checkout lines when several cashier lanes are open?"

[i'm not a cookie]

Originally Posted by Bungle

I've been here 20+ years and literally never experience any of this...or if I have I probably just haven't noticed or cared. You seem very uptight.

Yeah I agree with you. I've lived in Arizona ever since I was 3, now I spend most of my time in LA but I still spend a great amount of time in Arizona....and I really feel like people are overexaggerating the impact of the snowbirds. For the most part they are respectable and they help boost the economy. Sure traffic might get a little worse, and old town/camelback mountain/ect gets a little more crowded....but all in all their presence never really bothered me nor did it ever impact my day to day life. I much prefer the winter when everything is more lively and bustling as opposed to the summers when Phoenix becomes a ghost town.

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by i'm not a cookie

Yeah I agree with you. I've lived in Arizona ever since I was 3, now I spend most of my time in LA but I still spend a great amount of time in Arizona....and I really feel like people are overexaggerating the impact of the snowbirds. For the most part they are respectable and they help boost the economy. Sure traffic might get a little worse, and old town/camelback mountain/ect gets a little more crowded....but all in all their presence never really bothered me nor did it ever impact my day to day life. I much prefer the winter when everything is more lively and bustling as opposed to the summers when Phoenix becomes a ghost town.

That's interesting because one of the things I enjoy about the summer is the quieter, more peaceful vibe around the Valley where it's just year-round residents and there are less crowds, less traffic, shorter lines/waits, etc. It's kind of "our time" just for those of us who really live here. Nothing against snowbirds but there's a difference between visitors and residents. I think you get the same peaceful vibe in, say, ski towns in the summer -- although summer weather in mountain towns is usually pretty gorgeous in and of itself so there is still some small amount of summer tourism in the form of hikers/mountain bikers.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by i'm not a cookie

Yeah I agree with you. I've lived in Arizona ever since I was 3, now I spend most of my time in LA but I still spend a great amount of time in Arizona....and I really feel like people are overexaggerating the impact of the snowbirds. For the most part they are respectable and they help boost the economy. Sure traffic might get a little worse, and old town/camelback mountain/ect gets a little more crowded....but all in all their presence never really bothered me nor did it ever impact my day to day life. I much prefer the winter when everything is more lively and bustling as opposed to the summers when Phoenix becomes a ghost town.

Bingo! ^^^! All of us are on a website where people who are supposedly sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fricken busy have found the time to log thousands of posts. So to the tightly wound impatient people: I say, stay off the forums and give yourself the gift of several hours more per week! Don't shoot the messenger. This is a logical statement.

[ElleTea]

Thought of this thread yesterday. Was driving in North Scottsdale around 4 PM, traffic was horrible. A pickup truck pulled out across 2 lanes of traffic causing everyone to screech to a halt. They then proceeded to go about 20 mph under the speed limit causing a lot of honking and swerving around them. Their plates? Alberta.

[ScottsdaleMark]

Haha. Another "pro tip" I've found is to look for California plates...a lot of the rental cars that serve California in the summer, are shuttled over here in the winter. So you'll see a ton of California plates that are actually rental cars.

It *used* to be easy to tell from afar which Arizona-plated cars were rentals because they had the black registration stickers but now we all have black stickers, so now you have to get up close and see if the black sticker says "PERM" (rental car or other fleet vehicle*) or if it's got the month and year like all of our private vehicles do.

*I think in the past fleet registration stickers said FLT, but I believe the fleet stickers all just say PERM since a few years ago.

[DetroitN8V]

I don't want to think what this place would look like without our winter visitors. I wonder how many businesses take loses serving us all summer so they can cash in over the winter. It's all a compromise but I appreciate all the amenities they leave behind for us to enjoy.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

Haha. Another "pro tip" I've found is to look for California plates...a lot of the rental cars that serve California in the summer, are shuttled over here in the winter. So you'll see a ton of California plates that are actually rental cars.

It *used* to be easy to tell from afar which Arizona-plated cars were rentals because they had the black registration stickers but now we all have black stickers, so now you have to get up close and see if the black sticker says "PERM" (rental car or other fleet vehicle*) or if it's got the month and year like all of our private vehicles do.

*I think in the past fleet registration stickers said FLT, but I believe the fleet stickers all just say PERM since a few years ago.

Look for bar code stickers on the rear/front window. Dead giveaway to a rental. Easy to spot, white/black sticker, usually in the far bottom or top, drivers side on the glass.

[Bates419]

Golf is the very obvious example. Courses are 1/4 of the winter cost in summer when it is actually more expensive to keep them nice.

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

I don't want to think what this place would look like without our winter visitors. I wonder how many businesses take loses serving us all summer so they can cash in over the winter. It's all a compromise but I appreciate all the amenities they leave behind for us to enjoy.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by jimj

Look for bar code stickers on the rear/front window. Dead giveaway to a rental. Easy to spot, white/black sticker, usually in the far bottom or top, drivers side on the glass.

Not necessarily, I have one of those bar codes in my windshield and it's so that I can drive right through the gate/arm at the car wash because I bought the unlimited car washes for $15/month thing. When I see other cars in the area with a bar code I assume it's for the same thing, lots of people have this.