A car leaves the parking lot in between Taco Bell and Waffle House.
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The Taco Bell on North Main Street has claimed half of the spots in its shopping center's parking lot for its employees and customers.
The lot has 40 non-handicapped parking spaces, and Taco Bell has taken control of 20 of them, with violators at risk of towing. The rest are shared by the EZ Way Laundromat, Greeks' Restaurant and Grill, Easy Way Packaging & Shipping Center and most recently, Waffle House.
Since most of its neighbors have been at their location for years, Taco Bell store manager Syrakhone Phonasa attributes the recent arrival of Waffle House to a decline in the Taco Bell's business.
"(The parking change) happened because we're losing business, we don't have parking spaces for our customers," Phonasa said.
While the shift in parking availability might seem drastic, Phonasa said that Taco Bell has had ownership of the now-marked spots for years.
"From what I understand, Taco Bell's parking lot is what's behind and beside our building. We have shared that with the other businesses, but we don't necessarily have to," Phonasa said.
Until recently, Phonasa said it wasn't necessary to draw specific lines, but the popularity of Waffle House has caused Taco Bell to mark its territory.
Because Waffle House often has upwards of seven people on staff at a time, their employees' cars take up a considerable portion of the lot, in addition to the employees of the other three buildings. This means that customers who want to eat at Waffle House have often been forced to park in Taco Bell's spots instead. Due to Waffle House's popularity, this has left potential Taco Bell customers without anywhere to park.
In 1985, Charlotte Joyce and her husband built shopping center. In 27 years, she has never had trouble with parking.
"I never dreamed that they'd have so many employees parking out here. It's not customers that are giving us trouble, it's the employees," she said.
Now that Taco Bell has made its boundaries clear, Waffle House may have a bit of a parking shortage. It may be too soon to tell, but Waffle House's Unit Manager JoAnn Seymour seems unfazed.
"We're just delighted to have our customers here. Whether they decide to stop in a car or drop by via foot, we're happy to have them."
While its arrival has caused a change in the lot's atmosphere, Waffle House isn't necessarily at fault. The restaurant may be new, but it has been well received by students like Maya Gantt, a junior human nutrition, foods and exercise major.
"I feel like more people come to Waffle House than Taco Bell, so there should probably be more parking for Waffle House," she said.
Regardless of where the lines are drawn, it's possible that the small lot simply doesn't have enough spaces for two popular restaurants.
A version of this article appeared in the Oct 10 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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sounds to me like the waffle house manager doesn't care if her customers get towed. course only drunk people like the food, it's way too greasy. and well not really very good even for a waffle house.
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many people only eat at waffle house once.
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i don't like how all the employees smell of cigarette smoke, i think all of them smoke, i won't be back.
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maya is a junior studying human nutrition, foods and exercise major and she recommends waffle house, maybe she needs to change majors.
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headline should say "fast food chains vie over parking"
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Joe, The meat at Taco Bell cannot even be called meat. Tendons and ligaments mixed with bone marrow. Waffle House may not be a culinary destination, but at least they serve meat.
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can't blame taco bell, was poor planning on the waffle house people, that lot was way too small to handle all the businesses in there. course if all the employees could park some place else there would be plenty of spaces.
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Parking shouldn't be a big deal. It's a small town, so walk to the place. You'll need the exercise after eating at either place.
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"In 1985, Charlotte Joyce and her husband built shopping center." Did Tarzan write this article?
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taco bell has nothing to worry about, from the stories i hear of waffle house their business will go down because some of the managers have a BA because they're upset tech beat georgia tech. one of them asked a customer who complained about cold food, he asked the customer can't you eat it. duh it was cold.
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i think parking will get better once people go to waffle house and find out how greasy and not really all that great. i ate there once, had to wait 10 minutes for someone to take my order, and food wasn;t all that great and cost me more than i spend at famous anthonys and was less food.
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Most of Taco Bells spaces goes to their upwards of seven people working at a time as well. I have never seen Taco Bell be busy enough to need as many parking spaces as they current have marked off. The are upset because they aren't doing well and haven't been for several years, they just want an excuse to blame their lack of business on.
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The building was built in 1985 by the Joyce family but is now owned by Mike from "Mike's burgers". And honestly is there nothing else to write about in Blacksburg.
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Do you mean owed by SLUMLORDS!!
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Remember the Irish pub across the street? They are short on parking, too. Lots of folks park in the Taco Bell lot & walk over there.
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