A St. Louis-area Walgreens snubs cyclists; response from Walgreens

According to a St. Louis-area cyclist who has frequently patronized the Walgreens at 4200 Lindell, the store management has made it clear that they do not wish cyclists to shop at the store in the future.

The newly constructed building has been provided with no bicycle parking facilities, despite management promises that such facilities would be included. On the new building there are no rails, poles, or other "informal bike racks" to which one may lock a bike.

The cyclist had made the best of the situation by rolling his bike inside the store and parking it near the shopping carts. Recently the store's security officer made it clear that cyclists were no longer welcome to do that. He also made it clear that this was store policy.

The store's solution for cyclists to lock their bikes to a fence in the parking lot. Unfortunately the location of that fence allows cars pulling in to parking space to nose in and crush bicycles against the fence.

Other St. Louis-area cyclists have reported that other Walgreens have been friendlier to cyclists.

Bicycle racks are very inexpensive for businesses to install--a rack holding 6 or 8 bicycles takes less space and costs far less than paving the parking space for just one motor vehicle.

More and more, area residents are demanding that businesses provide reasonable pedestrian and bicycle accommodations as a matter of course. Cyclists are reluctant to leave bicycles (which may be worth upwards of $500) where they are vulnerable to theft or to be crushed by automobiles.

Read the report by Russ Willis here, and responses here and here.

A St. Louis-area cyclist forwarded these concerns to Walgreen's Investor Relations department and received this response from Walgreens:

Thank you for taking the time to email us with your concern regarding our store at 4200 Lindell Blvd.

Please be assured that Walgreens takes customer comments and complaints very seriously, and we will continue to try to improve the way we do business.

The above store at Lindell was just recently relocated which is why we currently do not have a bike rack. This location does have a bike rack on order that will be installed for our patrons. Due to safety concerns bikes are not allowed inside the store. We appreciate our cycling customers and in no way would we discourage them from shopping at Walgreens.

Again, thank you for taking time to bring your comment to our attention.

Sincerely,

Tammy Waller
Customer Service

Ref # 140729