Conoco

I had, up until today, been shopping at this store for over a decade. Today, when I went in, I was informed by the clerk that the store manager said I could no longer walk my bicycle inside the store, and was directed to a shoddy bike rack, not even bolted to the ground. This is a CONVENIENCE store, and it is not convenient to have to leave my bike outside where it is vulnerable to damage or theft for a 2 minute shopping trip. The kind of bike I own is a target even with a lock on it, and it would be no trouble for someone to load the bike and the rack up and drive off with it. If I have to use a bike rack, it should at least be secure.
Despite shopping there for over a decade, I have never met any of the store managers. Furthermore, as someone who works in retail, I think the manager should be ashamed for providing such abysmal customer service and instructing the clerks to do the same.
In the decade I’ve been shopping there, I have always been respectful of the store, the staff, and other customers. The fact that me walking my bike into the store for 5 minutes is an issue to the manager is utterly ridiculous. A store manager should be considerate of every customer and not pass down arbitrary, blanket policies directed at customers he or she has never even met.
Maybe if they were to take the time to bolt their bike rack to the ground and move it to a more conspicuous location I would reconsider giving them business again, but as it stands, I will not be returning to this location until they adopt a more bicycle friendly policy, upgrade their bike rack, replace the store manager, or all of the above. I urge all cyclists to avoid this store.
With that being said, their gas prices are higher than the surrounding stores. They have a decent, competitively priced liquor selection but that’s about all they have going for them. Their pricing strategy is quite clearly geared towards cheap booze and expensive gas, and this attracts a very shady late night crowd. When I ride my bike by at 10PM after work to get a bomber, there’s no way I would leave my bike out of my hands, let alone out of sight! Their convenient location was the only reason I ever shopped there, but at this point it wouldn’t matter if they were in my living room. I don’t support businesses where crappy customer service is practiced by the manager, and the fact that the manager is instructing the clerks to provide the same crappy customer service means that they’re not worthy of my, or your, business.