Parking in LA: More Annoying Than Ever

In the future, the Los Angeles service economy will be completely sexualized. The NYT Sunday Styles section examines Valet of the Dolls, an all-woman parking valet service whose workers dress in slinky outfits and flirt while they park.

The women of Valet of the Dolls tend to have other careers, often in the entertainment industry; many are aspiring actresses, models, writers or stuntwomen. They start at $7.25 an hour, and if a valet works a “costume” event, she gets an extra $10 to $40 a night. Tips are not as plentiful as for waitressing and bartending, but the hours are more flexible. Besides, said Mary Pat Farrell, a comedy writer and supervisor at Valet of the Dolls, “to get a good bartending job in L.A. you have to be so hot it’s not even funny.”

According to Janelle Brown, who wrote the piece, there are several other valet parking companies competing in the same get-your-car-parked-by-a-costumed-Hollywood-wannabe niche.

If this becomes the dominant valet paradigm, I’m going to start a hip retro parking service staffed by pudgy men with indeterminate accents and ill-fitting polyester uniforms. (I can see the DailyCandy email already. “Sometimes, with all the hottie valet services out there, you and your car just want to kick it old-school.”)