Now here’s a nifty idea.
Rainbow Grocery, the San Francisco worker-owned cooperative organic grocery, is offering a 10% discount to bicyclists, in order to promote alternative transportation. The offer is good for any member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (sorry, no EBBC discount as far as I know).
In Berkeley, Oakland, and many other East Bay cities, the number one complaint of business owners is the lack of convenient parking. As well, developers must often pay enormous fees and/or garage parking to meet zoning requirements. Bicycling is a great way to mitigate parking requirements — and what better way than to offer discounts to customers who do not require expensive parking spaces.
Berkeley Bowl, Whole Foods, and other large supermarkets already have huge numbers of bicycling customers — and a huge parking problem managing their automobile customers.
Perhaps there is a win-win opportunity here to expand the EBBC discount program to area supermarkets.