Cafe chain moving into vacated Bargain Box space in Palo Alto

Le Boulanger = white bread sandwiches. Vastly inferior to the similarly named La Boulange chain.

Why on earth do we need yet another cafe/bakery on California Street? And one that is inferior to both the existing bakery and the several other coffee houses already extant on it?
We need places to SHOP, not an endless row of eateries! Bargain Box was excellent, so was the flower shop - both gone - and who knows what the next shop to go will be! Maybe the stationery, the camera/photography, the art store, the cobbler's, or the one and only boutique? For goodness' sake, when will this nonsense cease, and Palo Alto return to its previous, useful, shopper-friendly self?

We would love to see a bicycle shop on California Ave. Why are most of the city's bike shops on streets that are dangerous for bicyclists (like El Camino)?

@Parent:

I believe the main reasons are real estate prices and availability of suitably sized property.

Bikes take up a lot of floor space, even when they are stacked high in two-level display racks. Unlike t-shirts, one can't just squish bikes together or one risks damaging the finish of some very expensive products.

Bikes are often shipped to the store in large cardboard boxes, again bulky items that require a significant amount of space. What does a bike shop owner do? Devote retail floor space to storage of extra inventory?

Lastly is the issue of the bike repair workshop. Again, this takes a considerable amount of area. The repair stands have to been placed far enough apart for the technicians to be able to work on the bikes. The repair shop area is not a suitable display area for retail products.

Personally, I'm not sold on the convenience of a downtown bike shop, but admittedly my bike is for occasional pleasure rides, not commuting.

Don't see the reason for the all the heartache over Le Boulanger, which is a local, family-owned company. They make good sandwiches and sell pretty good pastries too. The Le Boulanger in Menlo Park is always busy. I totally disagree that they are inferior to the Starbucks-owned Le Boulange on University.

Idea is to create space for alternative uses. When I lived in London, trains were elevated with ground floor lock ups under the tracks. Space wasn't that expensive compared then leasing space on the High (main) Street.

"They make good sandwiches and sell pretty good pastries too."

Hope they maintain it better than the San Mateo outlet. Place is looking mighty sad.

"Le Boulanger = white bread sandwiches. Vastly inferior to the similarly named La Boulange chain."

You're out of your mind if you think La Boulange is better! Le Boulanger has something like 10 different kinds of bread, all of which are baked fresh. I'm not certain anything is fresh at La Boulange, since *$ took them over. All you have to do is ask for a different bread. Far better IMO.

Also, Peet's Coffee is better, which is a bonus at Le Boulanger.