Unfortunately yes. It's kind of a reverse "big city" problem here. In towns and small cities a lot of stores are demanding people to leave their backpack at the front counter and grab it back when they leave. I grew up in a town of ~7000 people and everyone has a car, just like in the US. Everyone is dependent on a car. So stores don't want backpacks because they're associated with mischievous students. Why don't you just leave your backpack in your car? In fact, why don't you have a car? Why the fuck do you need a backpack?! Are you a kid or something?!

I moved to Montréal nearly two decades ago and I'm happy to be car free. But every time I go back to my hometown, I get reminded that adults walking around with a backpack is not the norm in that part of the world. In bigger cities and dense areas, there's enough people without a car to just walk everywhere with a backpack and it becomes impossible to demand everyone to leave them at the counter. And people might protest it anyway. It's one thing to demand teenagers to leave a backpack with a random store employee, but it's another to demand office workers to leave their backpack containing a corporate laptop with a random store employee.

Whenever I encounter this practise, I get a bit insulted and usually refuse to play their game if I have a backpack with me.

Yep. Here in the US there is a gas station across from a high school and they make all the kids leave their bags in the entrance before coming in. And I think limit the kids that can come in at peak hours.