apparently Target and walmart have strick rules about no dogs in their stores. in strollers, carriers purses or whatever. For walmart their door greeters are trained to "Look" for dogs being sneeked in. My father in law was a walmart greeter and he said a few people would hide their dogs in their coats and he'd look the other way. ( huge dog lover) but he said it wasn't worth losing his job over if dogs were in the store during his shift.
So even though he didn't see anything wrong with 'pursedogs' going in the store, he'd have no choice but to call out the owners.
It's to bad a few irresponsible dog owners have ruined it for the rest of us. before I got Madison we took lexie everywhere. Have even been traveling and carried her in her case into eateries. Knowing we were taking a risk and willing to leave if asked to. Most places will allow your dog in a carrier if you're willing to sit in the patio. ( which we are so we can have our dog with us) But now that we have 2 dogs, I tend to leave them home more as for me its harder to handle 2 especially an active and curious puppy.