Elf pays parking meters for downtown shoppers
A Colorado Springs business owner is trying to bring shoppers downtown in a very unique way.
Richard Skorman owns Poor Richard’s Bookstore and Little Richard’s Toy Store. For now, he calls himself “The Parking Elf.”
Dressed in an elf costume, Skorman greets shoppers when they park and then pays their meter.
“Sometimes they pass it on, and that’s really fun,” he said. “They would start paying for the next person’s parking spot.”
Skorman said he enjoys giving back to his customers. But he isn’t doing this just for his stores.
“They can go to any of the businesses around here, we just hope they come downtown,” he said.
Shoppers said they were surprised to see an elf waiting for them by the parking meter.
“He kind of just walked over and filled the meter for us,” Zoey Church said. “I didn’t know he would be doing this on both sides of the street.”
Skorman said he hears customers talking about the difficulty of finding parking downtown.
“Parking shouldn’t be a reason not to come here and shop,” he said. “There’s a lot of great shops, and we want you to come and not worry about the parking side of it.”
It’s an act of kindness that caught many people’s attention.
“I was asking my mom for change to pay the meter, and then I looked up and noticed the elf standing there,” Carrie Dowdy said. “What a great holiday spirit. It was a nice way to start my day.”
