Parking lot attendants, Mexican style
One species thick on the ground in Mexico is the parking lot attendant, or viene-viene (c’mon-c’mon) as he is sometimes nicknamed in Spanish. These fellows are all over the big store parking lots, and even the tiniest patch of dirt will have at least one, providing vigorous hand signals as you squeeze into that tight spot. They become even more visible as you approach your car to leave, hovering close by to hand you the packages from your cart and signaling you out as you back up. It is beyond obvious that they are hoping for a tip.
At first I found these guys annoying and even pathetic, but I’ve come to realize that they perform a vital service and we always tip them. All the hand-waving is just theater; what they really do is prevent the theft of your car and its contents, and it’s well worth the small cost.
How much to give them? For basic hand-waving and being there, the Mexigringo tips three to five pesos, more for special jobs. A special job would be for example having a bunch of construction material tied on the top of your truck and needing someone to guard it while you go into the store. In this case one would personally ask the viene-viene to watch it, and tip him 10-20 pesos on leaving.
On rare occasions you may encounter a parking lot which does not have a viene-viene, in which event we recommend parking close to the entrance or some other heavily-trafficked area, and getting back to the car as quickly as possible. These are the times you realize the viene-viene is truly worth his weight in gold!
Sometimes a viene-viene may even appear as if by magic on a busy street when you’re trying to maneuver into a difficult spot. This might simply be a manifestation of Mexican male courtesy and no tip would be expected. On the other hand, it could be a viene-viene whose turf is a few parking spots in front of a particular restaurant or shop. You’ll need to gauge from his attitude whether a tip is appropriate in a case like this. If he’s still hanging around when you return to your car, you’ll know he’s a viene-viene.
In the big supermarket parking lots these gents are often elderly and in “uniform” — I remember one who even wore gold braid and epaulets on his white shirt. The Capt tips them ten pesos if they help load the trunk with groceries and block traffic so we can safely back out. They are so dignified, always friendly and good to practice my Spanish with. I don’t know how much good they are at preventing theft, though: there has been at least one car stolen from the Ley parking lot in the last year.
I’ve also had some incidents when I needed to back out of a narrow street or squeeze between two parked cars, and there always seemed to be a man nearby to help, indicating when I needed to edge a little more to the right or left and hold off other cars until I got through, just as a courtesy, not because they wanted a tip.