Rebekah J. Green: No-backpack rule discriminates, hurts businesses
It has become acceptable for businesses to refuse service to anyone carrying a backpack. Many small retailers, especially in low-income areas, post such policies and they are sometimes, but not always, enforced by staff.
Such policies present three problems. First, they give staff license to discriminate against who they allow in the stores based on factors other than a backpack. While staff might allow backpacked customers they deem unsuspicious, they can ask others with backpacks to leave on the basis of ethnicity or age.
Second, these policies effectively prevent cyclists from giving them business. If these retailers are interested in their bottom line, they would do well not to alienate clientele. As a cyclist, I carry my belongings on my back. Though some stores allow customers to put bags in a central location, it is usually unsupervised. It is unreasonable to ask its customers to leave their bags with their phones and keys in an unsupervised location.
Third, it makes it more difficult for everyone reliant on bicycle transportation to live sustainably, forcing them to pay more to patronize national chains in higher-income neighborhoods, taking money out of the communities that need it most. California should lead the country in sustainable business practices and remove such discriminatory policies.
Rebekah J. Green, Turlock
This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Rebekah J. Green: No-backpack rule discriminates, hurts businesses."