Parking Spaces..... Interesting....

My husband and I have been noticing that parking spaces at small mall strips are almost filled to capacity around our town.
Tonight, we noticed half the shops were closed for the night or out of business. The 4 other businesses that were open had one or two customers inside. We can approximate how many employees are working at each shop.  The cars parked exceeds workers and customers at this dinky mall center.

About a month ago, I had to get up at dark thirty to make an appointment. This gym I thought was doing a tremendous business all this time was closed. The parking lot was filled with cars. Where are the exercisers? Man, did they shrink that much? I doubt it.

Why are all these cars here? Hiding from the repo man?  Is the owner of the buildings renting out parking spaces? If so, to whom? Are these cars that should have been smashed for the cash for "clunkies".

So does your town has this strange phenomenon going on?