I live in a rather urban area outside of the downtown core. Our Radio Shacks (RS) are now called The Source by Circuit City (TS) but use the same RS sku codes for thier items when ordering. Most of the RS's here are inside malls but up north they have it in a cluster strip mall setup.
For the malls around here there ae bike racks around. I often lock up the bike where the security cameras are pointed for the parking lots. I figure if anyone is willing to lock up in front of a camera they're not one to rob an area from a security guards point of view. Also for my protection if I lock up in front of the camera if you are attacked for any reason you'll be on the camera and also if the bike is stolen you may have a better chance of someone finding the bike/crook.
When I was out in the Woodbridge (north-west of the city) area strip cluster mall where the TS was located I did not see any bike racks around. However there are posts and such on the other side of the parking lot which you could lock up and walk a long way to the store.
On a note on the TS/RS stores I totally agree half of the time the people inside don't know jack what you want. I was at the store in Woodbridge just looking for some wiring for my LED bike light and the guy did not understand why I would want to use a multi-mode driver to dim the lights then using resistors thinking I was building a bomb. I just said 'where are the wires and connectors. Thank you' and walked over to see what they had and while I was there the guys all almost touching me behind me looking at whatI was doing. I just left the store pissed at the treatment. That was more the employee then the store as I've been to a number of RS/TS's before and have gotten good treatment but just not happen to be around that area as I was working and wanted to stop by to see if one store had better stock then the other.
You do from time to find someone at RS/TS that knows thier stuff related to what you want to build in detail as they have experience building such an item before or have looked into it and genuinely wanting to offer suggestions to improve or make your design better to see you succeed. I agree RS/TS's prices are WAY overpriced. I mean the same switch is $1.00-1.50 CDN at my local electronics store while RS/TS wants $4.99 CDN.
However RS/TS is open later then all other electronic supplier stores here by 3-4hrs as most electronics stores here close at 18:00 ET and RS/TS closes at 21:00 ET. I figure if RS/TS is open that much later they can raise the pricing some to cover the more lighitng/employee costs and the retail space. Also because of the convience cost for the customer who missed out thier local electronics store cut off time they can still get some parts to keep them going.