How many bikes?

[Wowbagger]

On the Sheffield stands at Waitrose today - 1. That was mine.

The shop wasn't that crowded either. Perhaps the increase in prices is sending people to Tesco's?

[Jurek]

Was it not Waitrose that were pioneering a take-your-groceries-home-by-bicycle-using-one-of-our-trailers scheme (or something)  a few months ago?

[Wowbagger]

They were, but not in the Southend branch.

[teethgrinder]

On the Sheffield stands at Waitrose today - 1. That was mine.

The shop wasn't that crowded either. Perhaps the increase in prices is sending people to Tesco's?

Sainsburys is there to keep the riff raff out of Waitrose. Tesco (where I shop) is lower down than Sainsburys, but I feel safer about leaving my bike outside my local Tesco.

[Pete]

You're lucky.  Our local Waitrose doesn't have any cycle stands. 

Our local Tescos does. 

Waitrose, furthermore, offers a car park incentive scheme.  If you spend more than £x in the supermarket (I forget what amount 'x' is), you get your car parking ticket paid for you.  Plenty of encouragement for cycling there!   

Methinks my middle-class credentials are rapidly evaporating....

[Wowbagger]

Parking schemes seem to be down to local authority whim. Our Sainsbury's , right in the town centre, operates a Pay & Dsiplay car park in which the tickets are redeemable against goods. Tesco & Waitrose are both "out-of-town" and have their own car parks. No-one would have any other reason to park there. The Sainsbury's car park is almost certainly used by others - quite often if we needed something from the High Street or to go to the bank, when Mrs. Wow and I still shopped by car, she would go round Sainsbury's with the parking counterfoil and I would rush round the other shops. Now, on the rare occasions I go to Sainsbury's I take a Brompton and wheel it roundthe shop, using its front bag as a basket.

I wouldn't dare leave a decent bike outside Sainsburys. I don't think there are any nearby sheffield stands, and tehre are lots of oikish yoof hanging about. I've never sen any at Waitrose.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Stroud likes to proclaim its eco-credentials (first town with a Green Party mayor, resisting supermarkets till mid-80s, etc) but Waitrose there also redeems parking if you pay over x.

[TimO]

You're lucky.  Our local Waitrose doesn't have any cycle stands. 

Our local Tescos does. 
...

My Sainsburys has about 30 sheffield stands in a row.  I've only ever once seen one other bike on them.  For some bizzare reason they are placed about a foot apart from each other, which just makes it possible to get a bike against one, but I inevitably hit a pedal or handlebar against the stand in the process.  It stinks of them being required to provide facilities for X bikes, and they did it in as small a space as possible.  To be fair, it's a bit of a bugger to cycle to this store, because of the two busy lanes of traffic you have to cross to get into the right hand feeder lane, but I've perfected doing it using my trailer, by waiting for the previous light to go red, and they have lots of clear bike racks to lock the bike and trailer to!

[Wendy]

Only two bikes here, I don't own any more than that.   

And Bigg In Bikes seems to stock only supermarket style bouncers.

[Charlotte]

It's funny - I feel much safer, leaving my bike outside Waitrose than I do at the local Sainsbury's.  Fair enough, the Waitrose has bike parking that you can see from the checkouts, rather than in the alley outside - but I think it's more than that.

I think it's because the local feral yoof don't hang about near Waitrose, 'cos they can't afford to shop there.

Waitrose is frightfully posh 

[Regulator]

We are still waiting for our Sainsbury's Market to install the cycle parking that is part of it's planning permission.  It's been open 3 years... 

Mind you, it's not as if I need to cycle the 40 metres from my front door - but it's the principle that counts.

Westminster talk the talk - but don't walk the walk.  Enforcement of the 'big boys' is non-existent, but Heaven help you if you're a small trader or restaurant.

We don't have a Waitrose, which is a pity.  They're not overly posh - they just price their food more realistically.

[Sigurd Mudtracker]

Now, on the rare occasions I go to Sainsbury's I take a Brompton and wheel it roundthe shop, using its front bag as a basket.

I've never had the brass neck to do that, but on reflection Brompton is probably smaller than any shopping trolley.

[fuzzy]

Waitrose in Marlow has a number of cycle stands to the front. They are well utilised

[orienteer]

You're lucky.  Our local Waitrose doesn't have any cycle stands. 

Our local Tescos does. 

Waitrose, furthermore, offers a car park incentive scheme.  If you spend more than £x in the supermarket (I forget what amount 'x' is), you get your car parking ticket paid for you.  Plenty of encouragement for cycling there!   

Methinks my middle-class credentials are rapidly evaporating....

Our Waitrose gives the rebate too. We use Quickscan (scan your own goods as you pick them up, to avoid the checkout) which automatically refunds two hours parking, whereas we only park for one. So if you go by bike, you'll get the full refund without even having to park!

[Pete]

Our Waitrose gives the rebate too. We use Quickscan (scan your own goods as you pick them up, to avoid the checkout) which automatically refunds two hours parking, whereas we only park for one. So if you go by bike, you'll get the full refund without even having to park!

What do you mean, do Waitrose actually knock the cash off your bill?  That would be useful to know!  Our waitrose doesn't do that.  You're supposed to hand over the ticket which you took from the machine at the car park entrance, and the till endorses it so you don't need to pay at the car park exit.  No benefit to cyclists, in other words...

[nuttycyclist]

Can't you get a ticket as you cycle into the car park entrance, then go out of the car park without paying at the end?    You don't need the barrier to open, unlike drivers.

[Pete]

Not exactly.  What happens in the town centre car park which serves Waitrose and the surrounding shopping mall: you take a ticket as you drive in.  If you don't shop at Waitrose, then you have to push that ticket into a machine in the pedestrian precinct and pay your due, then you retrieve the ticket and drive to the exit where another barrier is waiting to receive your endorsed ticket.  If you go through Waitrose the till endorses your ticket in some way so that you don't have to push it through the payment machine (or maybe you do, but you don't have to pay any money).

At least, I think that's how it works - long time since I last used that car park.

Anyway, I don't see how that can be of any help to cyclists.  I don't cycle through the car park entrance or exit anyway...

[Greenbank]

The Sainsbury's in Wandsworth does something similar but there are no entry/exit gates but Pay and Display instead.

You have to pay in advance for parking at a machine. This gives you something to put inside the windscreen to say you have paid (and stopping being clamped), and a little receipt.

You present the parking receipt at the till when you pay for your shopping and the amount you paid for parking is deducted from your bill.

It was introduced as many people were parking in the Sainsbury's car park for free rather than the NCP car park at the shopping centre 100 yards away where you pay a couple of quid an hour.

[TimO]

...It was introduced as many people were parking in the Sainsbury's car park for free rather than the NCP car park at the shopping centre 100 yards away where you pay a couple of quid an hour.

Of course this pissed off Wandsworth Council, since apparently Sainsburys agreed that anyone could park there in exchange for the Council letting them build it.  Still, it doesn't worry me any more, since I live seven miles away from there now...

[Woofage]

Our local Waitrose usually has 3 or 4 bikes parked outside (probably 1 or 2 more than Sains or Tesco).

I was just leaving one day (around Christmas time) and an elderly (80's?) lady commented favourably on my panniers. She said she had given up her car the previous year, that  it was the best thing she ever did and how she loved her bike - an old Raleigh Shopper or similar! We both had a little chuckle at all those unfortunates queueing in their cars .

The car park is free to use if you buy something. Problem is it's very close to the TC so people use it as a "free" car park.

[Deano]

At the Sainsbury's in Darlo, at least one of the cycle spaces is taken up by a motorbike/scooter. 

The record is three bikes (mine plus 2 others).

Of course, in Darlo, Sainsbury's is the posh supermarket.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm now trying to think of a supermarket here (city of 6.5 million) with its own car park. And I realise I'm happy not to know of any! 

[Pete]

Now I come to think of it, the Sainsbury's in neighbouring Haywards Heath, which has a large completely free car park only about 200 yards from a busy railway station: I have on one or two occasions briefly parked there when picking someone up from the station (the station forecourt is difficult to park in, especially on Sundays when it's so often taken over by the 'replacement bus service'  ).  I believe Sainsbury's regularly check the car park and clamp any all-day parkers or suspected commuters they may discover.  But for myself, availing myself for only a few minutes at a time, I've never had any bother.

Maybe once someone from Sainsbury's reads this post, they will "hum" and "ha" and close the loophole .... 

[Frenchie]

I use the Sheffield stands in most of the local supermarkets here (S's and T's). Both have good facilities. Since I live in a university town and close from the university, I guess this explains why there are always at least a few other bikes when I arrive.

[Karen Sutton]

The Sainsbury's near us has good bike parking facilities.  Right next to the trollies and the door, about twenty Sheffield stands, under cover and in full view of the checkouts.  There are always a good few bikes there and the regulars leave their locks round the bottom of the stands.  I'm quite happy to leave my bike parked there.  Sainsburys also paid for the cycle lane which allows us to avoid the traffic queue as we leave as well.