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Thursday, Jan 5, 2006 4:26 PM UTC

Hot girls park hot cars!

In L.A., women in skimpy outfits have conquered the domain of awkward young men: Valet parking.

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Topics: Broadsheet, Auto Industry, Business, Love and Sex,

Another story from the “we aren’t sure what to make of this” department: Today, the Los Angeles Times has a short business piece about the sale of Valet Girls, an all-female, Malibu, Calif.-based valet parking service, to California Girls Valet Parking of Beverly Hills.

The business aspect of the piece isn’t very interesting (the company sold for $400,000). But some of the quotes are pretty priceless. Turns out that as valet parkers, “women are just better than men,” according to California Girls owner Brad Saltzman. Clients, Saltzman says, would rather put their vehicles in the hands of wannabe actresses and models in teeny outfits than “acne-riddled teenage boys in red vests.” Ouch!

Valet Girls, California Girls and other companies (including the swell-named Valet of the Dolls) have found a winning formula, according to the Times. They’ve “meshed three hallmarks of upscale Southern California life: attractive women, luxury automobiles and the desire to avoid parking your own car, whatever the cost.” And the benefits of this synergy seem to extend to everyone, in one way or another. Erin Swan, 24, told the Times that she has made between $300 and $400 in one night of work for California Girls, and all she has to do is wear a schoolgirl outfit!

Saltzman plans to expand to San Diego, Santa Barbara and Las Vegas before long. But those of us Broadsheeters in New York City have to wonder: How would this kind of business work here? Bikini bike messengers? We think the Big Apple is better off with scrappy boys and girls, men and women, in their baggy olive drabs, trucking around downtown with messy hair and giant bags. We’ll leave the California Girls where they belong: in California.

Hillary Frey is the Books editor at Salon. More Hillary Frey.

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