Would you leave your dog outside a store?

I think a lot depends on your community and your dog. In our town I've seen a couple of dogs outside of stores, but we have extremely low crime and I simply can't imagine something like that happening. In some larger areas, even our neighboring town, no way.

I wouldn't, although I was tempted to once when we went for a longer walk than normal and I needed to use a bathroom.  I would just get too nervous, plus even if I only needed to pick up one thing I couldn't do it very quickly.  I always need to look at everything.
 
I got some weird looks for doing this:
 there is a Pier 1 next to the Petco and I saw a chair in the window that I really liked so I yelled into the store and got a sales clerk's attention so I could get more info on the chair.  Still debating whether or not to buy it.

I never would. My dogs are too cute, and people think that they should be handled and picked up. My dogs disagree with this, and it could turn into a fiasco.

I agree with saveastray2day- it really depends on the community you live in. In the town I grew up in, I tied my dogs outside a convenience store to run in and grab a few things on a regular basis. In the town I live in now, I'd never DREAM of it. Heck, I can't even leave my dogs unsupervised in my own YARD here. [:'(]

I do it only if I can see him clearly from the cashier since that takes the longest. Grabbing a couple things takes less than a minute, but it can be 5-10 min at the cashier so I better be able to see him from there.

I agree with saveastray2day.
 
I live in a town population of 205 people. Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everyones dogs so its no problem here. In a larger town or city who knows what could happen.

Growing up I had a lovely Sheltie named Daisy. One day we were having a garage sale and left Daisy tied to a tree in the front so she could be outside with us. She was supervised the entire morning except for a fateful 5-minute bathroom break my mother took while I was upstairs putting price tags on things. Our dog started acting very strangely after that, and later we found out that her tail had been sprained, probably from some kid coming by and pulling it roughly. She had a tail-touching phobia ever after that.

After that experience I am very nervous at the thought of leaving my dog unsupervised in any public place. No matter how safe/small the town, there's still a chance some idiot... err, ignorant person could come by and inadvertently hurt your dog.

It all depends on your town and situation. I wouldn't, because we don't live in a small town, and I can't walk to any stores with the dogs anyway. There was one time that I had to leave Cassidy tied outside of a McDonald's restuarant....we were going on a vacation and the van broke down, so we had to call someone to tow us. Luckily the tow trucks who drove us to the restuarant were fine with letting Cassidy come in the truck with us. So then we had to go inside the restaurant and wait for my dad to come and pick us up with another vehicle. So I tied her to a railing on the sidewalk, and sat where I could see her right out the window. There were a lot of people around, but it was ok because I was right there and could see her at all times. And then when we go camping, I'll walk Cassidy along to the restrooms whenever we go, and tie her outside of there, but even at a campground, I'm a little nervous leaving her for a few minutes. 

I agree that it depends on your community & the visibility you have of your dog from inside the store. In my area people will steal anything that isn't bolted & welded down. Even then they still try...

I do it here because I live in a neighborhood where:

1. Folks watch out for one another generally
2. Everybody knows that my dog is mine and not someone else's.
3. There are usually enough people around to make sure crimes of opportunity don't happen.

And:

1. My dog is nice
2. And he doesn't bark like a jerk when I go into stores.

If any of these statements were not true, I'd reconsider.

People do it safely here - I often see a lovely Golden sitting tied up to the ice cabinet outside the store. Now and then a Saint Bernard.
I wouldn't with Molly though as she's too distrustful of strangers. And it's a long walk for us to the store. With Sadie my son would drive us down on his way to work and we'd walk back. Her I could leave out there...I don't dare with Molly.

I've only done it once and I'll never do it again.  I left Wes in front of Tim Horton's to run in and get coffees one morning.  I tied him in full view of the line so that I could keep an eye on him.
 
The reason I'd never do it again?  4 people walked up and petted him.  It just made me really nervous.  I would never go up and pet a strange dog.  No matter how happy he looked.  It totally freaked me out.
 
I worry about them getting stolen too.  I'm sure this is totally insane - I doubt large mixed-breed dogs go missing very often ... but it scares me.
 
People around here do it all the time though.  I'm sure it's safe enough here - but it still scares me.

I see this alot, I have seen people tie there dog outside a rest area door on the highway, I waited for the people to come back so the dog didn't get stolen, people are nuts, you never know. We live in a very small town, I still would never leave my babies tied up outside, Im very over protective. Can't help it. I guess everyones situation is different, just my opinion

Tyler is my calmest and least likely to freak if he suddenly finds himself alone, but I'd not ever leave him outside a store.  This past summer I was walking the 6 miles into town on a regular basis and I would go to places like the gas station that sells milk the cheapest anyway where they could go in with me, or at the coffee house, I'd just stand at the door and the gal would come with my order....it only took a couple times waiting for her to know exactly what my order would be....and also a cup of water for whoever was with me.  I would also take them to the farm market with me....it's a little store with the best local produce around, most of it outside, and if the back cashier, the outside one where the plants were, wasn't opened, I'd again open the door of the inside part (they had deli stuff in there so I wouldn't risk taking a dog inside) and ask them to come get my little basket of stuff.  I never bought a heck of a lot on foot since I was going to have to carry it in a backpack 6 miles home, and I do live in a small village, but, I wouldn't leave a dog outside anymore than I'd leave a small child outside.  It just doesn't feel safe to me.