Trakhak

My local chain supermarket had several of those but got rid of them after a year or so. They still have courtesy electric wheelchairs.

The latest it's-all-about-me thing I see there is the line of cars parked in the fire lane along the front of the store, with the driver waiting behind the wheel with the engine idling while the shopper goes in to shop.

I never see anyone wheeling a bike around the store. But that's a Baltimore city store. Maybe the practice of wheeling bikes in the aisles is a suburban thing, where supermarkets tend to have wider aisles.

choddo

and that would never happen on here

choddo

No. I take my worst bike and I lock it up outside. Can’t imagine trying to do anything useful in a supermarket while being hamstrung by carting that thing around.

PeteHski

We get this too and also parking alone in the family spaces specifically reserved for parents with babies and small children. They even make a point of taking up the spaces nearest the store entrance. They have no shame.

john m flores 

If I'm just popping into a shop for some coffee or boba for a couple of minutes I'll do this. The Hiplok is basically a re-usable zip tie with a steel core. It's a simple theft deterrent that fits in my jersey pocket.

DangerousDanR

I do if there is no place to lock it up. I've never had anyone tell me not to. Mostly if I need to pick up something on my way home from work.

Also, in the winter here I suspect that most people question my sanity. Or it's the upper Midwest thing of don't talk to strangers, and I do look a bit strange.

Mojo31

I always take my car to the store. I have yet to be asked to leave it outside.

Polaris OBark

One of the things that struck me about UK grocery stores, at least when I was living in Cambridge, was how densely packed everything was, with almost no room to maneuver. People were always ramming their shopping 'trollies' into one another. There was clearly no physical possibility of bringing a bike inside.

eduskator

I don't bring my bicycle inside stores unless it's a LBS. I never leave my bike unwatched in fact. If it's an emergency, I ask someone to look after it while I quickly go do whatever I have to do inside.

Regardless if you leave it unlocked at sight or not, I can guarantee you that if someone rushes on your bike then gets on the saddle and start pedaling, you will not be able to catch up that person on foot and especially not with road shoes in your feet.

LesterOfPuppets

Put in high gear before you stop and they'll never get away!

LesterOfPuppets

Narrow aisles in France and Belgium too.

And at Trader Joes here in the USA, I can't imagine rolling a bike in Trader Joe's.

mschwett 

i’ve done this more than a few times. i enjoyed riding my road bike to work, sometimes taking a longer ride at lunch or after work / on the way home, and sometimes you just need to make a quick stop at trader joe’s or the pharmacy.

not everyone has the space or time for a large fleet, and i’d rather lock my carbon road bike up in front of a busy shop than ride a beater for a climbing ride at lunch.

i would never bring a bike inside a grocery store, small market, etc. there are a few restaurants i know of that mostly do take out and have a little empty space to lean a bike against the wall just inside.

Trakhak

I imagine a bunch of us have evolved quick fixes for slowing potential thieves, such as LesterOfPuppets's trick of leaving the bike in the highest gear. A friend of mine says that when he stops in, e.g., a convenience store, he unships the chain from the chainrings.

My technique is to hook the straps of my helmet around the tire and rim of the front wheel and the down tube. Or just the wheel, but hooking the straps around both the wheel and the down tube might look a little more lock-like to the casual would-be thief.

shelbyfv

Entitlement, no surprise.

datlas 

A Larry thread that has gone two pages without going off the rails?

Inconceivable!

Koyote

If the establishment has not provided a bike rack, and there's not a light post or something to which I can safely lock my bike, I'll just take the bike inside without asking. No one has ever said anything about it.

Mojo31

And unbelievable.

Mojo31

Where I am in suburbia, the risk of theft from someone walking by and riding off is miniscule. The bigger and real risk is someone simply tossing a bike in the back of a pickup. Those types of tricks won't make a difference.

Trakhak

My fallback rationalization is that few thieves would be interested in anything that isn't an e-bike these days.

baj32161

If a store won't let me bring my bike in, I won't shop there.

That is why I quit my gym.

Mind you, this is totally based on where I used to live....ni bike racks and poorly lit at night. Police also did not care about bike theft.

baj32161

And how wrong you are.

jaxgtr

I only do this if I am on my road bike for a quick stop for water as I wont have a lock... otherwise no.

LarrySellerz

Once as a kid I undid my front quick release and moved the wheel mostly out of the dropouts to booby trap it, and then ended up getting myself!

I normally leave it in the front of the store. I usually go to a store after work to get something or other to eat

Trakhak

As I said: a rationalization.

Alan K

At my bank’s drive though line, the bank employees didn’t seem to care one way or the other but occasionally a car driver would try to edumacate me that how I’m at the wrong place - I ought to leave my bike on the bike rack and go inside.