photoassign

Haha, I so feel your pain: https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=407372

i try to stay away from RS myself unless it's an emergency, they always try to sell you a cellphone contract when all you look for is a pair of AA batteries

neilfein

Once I stopped off at a liquor store on the way home to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. It looked like there was plenty of room inside the store, so I brought my bike in. The manager started to tell me I couldn't leave my bike there. I hadn't seen anywhere outside to lock up, so I asked him if he knew where I could? No, he said, just leave it there, as he pointed to an empty area right inside the front door. I suspect he was nicer to me than he needed to be; I was about to give him some attitude before he turned out to be a nice guy, but luckily I never quite did.

Now, I usually ask in most places.

Cyclist0383

Wow, you sound like a total jerk with no respect for others. Where did your sense of entitlement come from?

zeytoun

I bring my bike into antique china stores without asking first. If anyone gives me lip, I've got a catechism of questions ready to show them that my bike is their problem. They'd better grovel, because I'm a paying customer.


/endsnark

CliftonGK1

The state store up the street from my old apartment has a bike rack right next to the front door. Even the beer/wine specialty shops have racks in front or nearby. I thought it was funny to listen to the disparaging comments people would mumble under their breath when I was putting a bottle of booze into the rack trunk on my bike.
"Maybe if you didn't drink, you wouldn't need to ride a bike everywhere..."

MMACH 5

I keep a lock on all of my utility bikes. They have custom combinations, so I don't have to remember three different combos.

On my commuting bike, I don't carry a lock, (I get to park it by my desk) and I rarely make any stops. However, when I do have to stop at a store, I always ask permission to leave my bike near the door. I've never been told it was not allowed. This includes grocers, pharmacies, hardware stores and Radio Shack.

Manners and courtesy are usually paid back with convenience and service.

bigbenaugust 

Back to Radio Shack, I actually used to like them when I was a kid and it was the only electronics store within cycling distance of my house (well, it was just outside the arbitrary cycling limits my dad had set, but if I went to the library I could sneak over to Radio Shack). But then, they gave up on actual electronics and started selling crap (cell phones, r/c toys, etc.). I probably visit one once a year, but only when I really can't find something at Fry's or elsewhere. Radio Shack is a place of last resort.

And yes, the Fry's' have bike racks.

banerjek

Your heart is good, but you still have much to learn, grasshopper. This is how you do it right....

Paul L.

Unfortunately the Best Buy out here sells only for lack of a better word "boutique" cables that cost 3 to 4 times what I can get them for at Radio Shack which is pretty much the only reason I go there unless I need a component fast, and even then I need to really look for a Radio Shack store that still stocks a few components and not cheap crap. It's not even the Denny's of electronics, more like McDonalds, although McDonalds is at least trying to improve their image a bit.

Paul L.

I take my bike inside Home Depot all the time and walk around with it. Those carts wheels are just as nasty as my bike wheels as both of them ride around on asphalt. Now, when I am picking up plywood it goes without saying I take the Jeep. But for zip ties, pvc fittings, a spray nozzle, a bike is more than suitable. Incidentally our Costco does indeed have a bike rack. Home Depot doesn't.

ottawa_adam

That's just rude and belligerent. If you're not happy with a store's policy, don't shop there. IMHO, it's inappropriate to cause a scene like that. Maybe you can try sending a letter to the store's head office? That's often more successful than acting this way.

banerjek

Just FYI, clerks are underpaid peons who are subject to constant abuse. Management makes them do all kinds of things to keep sales up and costs down, customers know they can't do anything even if you're totally unreasonable with them.

Anyone who likes picking on these people should try this type of work for at least a few months and see what it's like.

Home Depot is different in that people do bring large dirty carts in all the time, there's lots of space, and people are moving large things around so it probably wouldn't raise eyebrows. RS is not like that at all.

BarracksSi

+1, especially about the rude & belligerent part.

Everybody should do some time "on the other side of the counter" in the service industry.

robertlinthicum

By the way, I do NOT advocate rudeness or any confrontational behavior in reaction to shopkeeper bike-unfriendliness. The reason for this type of bike-averse behavior in shopkeepers and lobby guards is the subject for another thread entirely. I vote with my feet & spend my (falling) dollar where bicycles are welcome.

robertlinthicum

Give me a break. Please tell me this is satire.

robertlinthicum

Good question. Same reason I used to overpay for a cup of coffee, I suppose.

zeytoun

+1

We really should try to be more pro-active with our rudeness. Maybe lean the bike against the counter and honk the horn before we ascertain their opinion of bicyclists, not after....

chephy

You can ride an Xtracycle to Costco.