Supermarkets and bikes

[mjr]

It's a bit ridiculous taking a bike into a shop though. It's one thing making allowances for pushchairs or wheel chairs, but bikes - really !

I think it should depend how busy it is. Late at night, any customers are far more at risk from the shelf-stackers hurtling around pushing huge cages loaded with cases of products and near-zero visibility in an attempt to rebulid the shelves to the latest planogram in the laboratory-conditions time limit specified by the company.

I've been refused entry to Lakeland even if I would have put the (wheelchair-tyred) folding bike in one of their trollies. I don't shop there any more. With supermarkets, I've wheeled the folded bike around several co-ops, basically using the bag on it as a basket, without complaint. When I visit the full-size ones, I favour the ones with decent doorside parking, so it's been a long time since I went in Tesco!

 

[mjr]

If you are too precious about leaving your 3-months wages carbon bike outside, then take a worthless hack bike down to the shops instead. That's what I do, and I don't worry about it getting nicked.

Even though we're traffic-jam-dodgers, not everyone has the luxury of time of the likes of you and @Drago in being able to make lots of single-purpose trips.

 

[MontyVeda]

The security guy in my local Tesco Express lets me park my bike in the store. He even stands by it whilst i shop, and when i leave he says 'nice bike'. He's a nice bloke.

 

[mjr]

I just park out front of the grocery store and lock my bicycle to the rack. Since it's a grocery store, there are always employees and their friends loitering outside having a smoke, and they tend to watch the bicycles as well.

Ah, but in England, people loitering by bike racks are considered potential criminals who will steal the bikes or components from them or just buckle the wheels and cut the brakes for shoots and giggles. The reason for removing covered cycle parking from two locations near me was to stop "undesirables" sheltering from the rain in it.

At a recently built Aldi near us, the cycle racks are at the back of the store ( probably a space issue to be fair), whereas all the other Aldis in town they're at the front.
Result - ? All the customers chain their bikes to the railings at the front of the store: job done - !

Same situation in Lidl in Lynn. Bike racks are right in the line of fire next to where HGVs reverse in (a complete and utter violation of planning permission policies), so almost everyone locks to the railings by the door.

 

[straas]

I think it's pretty obvious why pushchairs etc are allowed in - they're all self supporting. The bike has to be leant against things, and it's pretty hard to push in a straight line whilst you've got 20 beers slung under your left arm.

The solution is bike racks right outside the entrance, under cover.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I found it odd too. I put it down to the fact that it was pouring with rain, and late. Maybe they resented the fact that I was giving them an extra mopping job to do when they shut up shop.

An Evans in Bristol has bike parking inside the shop. Nice touch.

@Tizme I understand your reluctance with regard to bike security. I have locked my bike outside numerous supermarkets in the U.K., Europe and Africa without any issues. I would be amazed if you can shop with a laden tourer I’m beginning to believe that a bike thief isn’t going to put the effort into nicking a laden tourer. I lock the panniers to the racks with tiny screw cables to stop the opportunists.

B&Bs and hotels are more of a concern. Get the owner or manager to let you keep the bike in your room or arranged room (bike locked) or don’t check in.

 

[mjr]

I think it's pretty obvious why pushchairs etc are allowed in - they're all self supporting. The bike has to be leant against things, and it's pretty hard to push in a straight line whilst you've got 20 beers slung under your left arm.

Not all bikes have to be leant against things and you put the beers in the rear baskets, not under your arm - sometimes the point of taking the bike in is so you're not trying to guess what % of a trolly matches the carrying capacity of the bike.

The solution is bike racks right outside the entrance, under cover.

It helps, for sure.

 

[straas]

I bring my panniers in, I've been told off before for putting the shopping in there before I've paid for it though!

 

[dantheman]

I've been stuck with the little ones bikes/scooters before and have never been told off for leaving them by the door inside (usually sainsburys/asda) or putting in a trolley.. I have never tried to take a full size bike in a supermarket, and don't think it's od be allowed...

The one exception was at a b&m/home bargains type store when I realised I didn't have a lock - I went straight to the till area and politely asked to leave it there for 5 minutes while I went and bought a lock from their stock... They were happy to oblige...

Maybe had you been polite and the security guard was stationed at the door he may have watched your bike there? And you could have still used he cable lock so if someone did try and nick it they wouldn't have got anywhere fast.

If they start letting expensive bikes in then they can hardly turn away a gang of youfs in hoodies with 5 bmx/apollo bikes away..

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I lost a lock on an Audax ride. I asked politely in a Subway and was given a lecture by a spotty yoof comparing me to kids on BMXs. I tore a strip off him right there and then in front of his colleagues and customers. Oh how he blushed. The café down the road, I hadn’t noticed, let me leave my bike in the service area AND gave me a free coffee with my lunch. I visit every time I pass through town now.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

It's all 'health and safety' these days. 'You can't bring it in because someone might fall over it'. Yes but this particular one is 'zesty lime'(high viz yellowy/green) in colour and it'll be standing up,i won't be lying it down on the floor'(chav style)

So is mine

OP wants to take his entitled rear end and a bicycle on to private property and insists that the security guard, just doing his job is the stupid one. The simple solution is to lock the bicycle outside. If one simply can't afford insurance or payout of pocket for repairs of your bicycle (regardless, the chances of that happening must be infinitesimally small), you really shouldn't be riding something you are so precious about to the shops in the first place. I can only dream of imagining the hysteria that might set in if someone shunted your bicycle accidentally with a trolley, or knocked it with a hand basket.

My confusion was that they never stopped the local yoofs pushing their around the aisles whilst they bought their can of fizzy drink, or were the bikes a distraction for the shop-lifting yoofs???

Where it was leant in the Co-Op, was in a corner, well out of the way of the footfall, but visible

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I’ve always thought it was law for yoofs to lie their bikes down in front of the shop door. Everyone else can use a lamppost.

 

[Rockn Robin]

Needed to pop into one of those giant Tescos tonight, but couldn't buy anything because the security guard was "no bikes allowed". I don't get why supermarkets don't like letting in people pushing things around on wheels.
I was about to explain that I didn't want to lock up a bike costing more than 3 months of his likely wage outside my line of site, to be vandalized, or have parts nicked off it but I reminded myself he was too stupid and just f'ed off. Just got what I needed at some fuel station.

On the other hand I needed to pop into a different super Tesco some time ago for wet wipes to wash blood off my face and hands. Not only did nobody give a toss about my bike, but when I asked the staff where the wet wipes were, they give me some for free. They were asking me if I were OK and I had to explain I had a nose bleed, a common symptom of hayfever and that there was no pain involved, just mess. Maybe I'l take fake blood next time.

At times it can be a bit of a bother, but since I bought my Brompton I have had no issues at all. It transforms into a shopping cart, so all I get is a lot of curiosity, and a few weird looks from fellow shoppers.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

At times it can be a bit of a bother, but since I bought my Brompton I have had no issues at all. It transforms into a shopping cart, so all I get is a lot of curiosity, and a few weird looks from fellow shoppers.

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That floor! There was a control in a posh village hall where all the riders had to take their shoes off before they went in to stop their cleats scratching it up. It looked very Japanesey to anyone who didn’t know what the bejazzle was going on.

 

[rogerzilla]

My local Sainsburys puts the bike stands a long way from, and out of sight of, the nearest trolley park. This means leaving your bike unattended with a week's shopping hanging from it when you go to get the quid back for the trolley.