this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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The bike shops around me don't own their shop. It's usually some rented space in a car oriented strip mall. No racks is the norm for these car-oriented places.
One local shop solves this with automatic doors and a small inside rack if you don't have a kickstand. And every LBS around me doesn't mind customers rolling in with their rides.
If there's something we can do, it's to show up to city councils and ask for bike loops/staples for all our downtown businesses. Then we'll have bike parking for every local shop, including bike shops.
That's my LBS but they put two long racks in front anyway. But as you wrote, it's all about available space, what the place they rent from allows, and such. Having the rack inside seems expensive, in terms of making every square foot revenue generating, as most IRL stores try to do.
Perfect, all they need to do is contact the property manager for the plaza and bike racks will be installed.
I've had to do this myself as a customer and it works.
And as a business, I would imagine these property managers would haul ass at the request.
That's not true in general. Most cities have ordinances around required side walk space and minimum parking requirements which prevents businesses from installing bike racks on the sidewalk or in a parking space.
I've asked and haven't had luck yet. Still, it's good advice as asking costs nothing. :)
"I feel bad going elsewhere, but I won't shop here unless bike racks are installed."
If your city has mandatory parking minimums you could also try to convince the council to include mandatory minimum bike parking.
Please no. Just repeal parking minimums. We don't need more arcane laws to comply with, even if I do like having bike parking
I'm super lucky that the cities around me are removing minimum parking laws! Most political drama is around parking meters because, gasp, how dare we charge reasonable fees to keep our limited street parking churning and available!