I submitted this letter to Big Y through the "Contact Us" form on their website. It concerns their bicycle parking facilities and their policy of prohibiting bicycles in their stores.

Dear Big Y:

I recently became aware of a couple of problems faced by customers who arrive at your stores by bicycle, such as myself.

The first problem is that of inadequate parking structures for bicycles, at least at your Amherst/Hadley store. The store does have a bike rack, and I believe that its capacity is sufficient for the time being. However, it's location is not obvious and is not the most convenient for some customers. I discovered this during a recent trip to the Amherst/Hadley store. I pulled up to the door near the customer service desk and express lane, where there had previous been a rack, and found no rack and no indication where bicycles could be securely parked. Also, the rack at this store is of a type that is far from the most secure or convenient. This type of bike rack is also known to sometimes bend the wheels of bikes, and is incompatible with fenders and with many non-standard frames. A much better type of rack that is free of all of these issues is the inverted U type.

The second problem is your policy of prohibiting bicycles in the stores. Even with adequate parking, it is sometimes more convenient to bring the bike into the store and use it as others would use a shopping cart. This eliminates the inconvenience of locking up, removing bags and accessories, carrying them around in the store, reattaching them, and unlocking the bike. Since a bike is smaller than a shopping cart, this should pose no problem to staff or other customers. I am told that the official reasoning behind this policy is that the presence of bicycles in the store poses a danger to other customers, who might trip over them. However, this does not ring true for me. While it might very well be the case that a customer has tripped on a bicycle in the past, I am highly skeptical of the claim that the bicycle creates a greater risk of injury than would otherwise exist. After all, a customer could just as easily trip on something else. I am confident that an objective analysis of injury data would bear this out.

I urge you to reconsider your policies regarding both bicycle parking and bicycles in the stores. Feel free to call or email me to discuss these issues further.