I just wear mine in stores. I don't really... go into restaurants. Hide it? Never. Anywhere I could hide it someone else could stumble upon it. And then it might be gone. I usually don't put it IN a cart while shopping, because it might appear as though I'm dropping things into it. I keep it on my back, with everything clipped closed, where it'd be next to impossible for anyone reasonable to say that I've been cramming their products in it.
Yes, store employees sometimes treat you bad. Haven't been yelled at. There have been a few times where people asked me to leave it up front: and there's varying degrees of the employee keeping an eye on it in that case.
There's been the nice "stick it in this cart and it'll be right here with customer service" and there's been "your bag can stay by the front door. Riiiight by it". And of course everything in between those two extremes. In the former I don't worry about it, in the latter I sometimes find another store, or just do my shopping as quick as possible (ie just grab water and some peanuts and then find another store).
There was one hilarious time where it seemed like three employees were 'working' around me the whole time I was inside, but they were adjusting things on aisles kind of lazily and it seemed to be their whole job to aggressively ask if I needed help finding anything every time I turned a corner. And I'm like, "No... just trying to pick which tarp I want and get a few things" :/
I understand that they have to be careful because some other asshole with a backpack has likely ruined things in the past. It does suck tho.
