Originally Posted by
saddlesores
not sure if that's to prevent angry shoppers ramming the storefront, or protect
the signs from bad drivers. bike racks get in the way of loaded shopping carts,
and perhaps attract bike tourists (like yours truly) who picanik on the sidewalk.
actually overpaid for their skills. otherwise they'd work elsewhere. i kinda like to see
the employees on bikes. let's me know the store is keeping prices low.
Bike racks can be tucked away near store entrance w/o impeding pedestrians while still having parked bikes in full view of heavy ped traffic. Your comment on bike-commuting employees as sign of low prices is interesting since some chains do similar things to convey value image. A former local appliance store chain deliberately left half-unpacked boxes in store aisles to convey image of staff being too busy to keep things super-tidy. Read an article about Home Depot opening one of their early stores: IIRC a major exec (president?) visited the store which was pristeen. He hopped on a fork-lift & made tire skid marks in the aisles to give it that 'busy look', heh.
Locally, the best place to park a bike is the DC Nationals baseball stadium. They have 250 custom-designed racks incl the team logo. While that specific area is near some low-income housing the racks are at least in full view of crowds on sidewalks; plus the racks work well to lock up frame/wheels. Furthermore, they have
free bike valet parking in the garage!