I actually never knew this was 'wrong' (reading in a store) until recently. I vividly recall being a teenager and leafing through game magazines to find codes I wanted for a particular game and then writing down said codes on a small notebook or on my hand so I didn't need to spend $5+ for one or two codes. Seemed very...un-economical. Or, if I saw an article I really wanted to keep in an expensive magazine, I would go take it to the copy machine a few aisles down (yeah, this grocery store had a copier) and pay a few cents for black and white copies.

Honestly, if stores cared enough about people reading and then not buying their magazines, they'd keep said reading material behind the counter. I mean, not even the plastic bags some magazines come in help, because I've seen plenty of copies of books like Shonen Jump wrapped up in plastic that got torn open.

And really, if anyone who was not an employee accosted me for reading in a store, I would promptly give them a verbal lashing and introduce them to my middle finger. Why? Because it's none of their business and I don't respond well to vigilante justice crap. If an employee makes the same request (without a horrible attitude), then I will listen.

Unless the little man of which you speak was an employee who copped an attitude, I don't know if corporate can really do anything. I think it might be discrimination if they banned all little people from their stores. A sign likely would not help because...well...anyone who knows anything about customer service knows people in general do not read signs. Even when they are big and sport big bright letters with blinking neon lights, there's always a handful of special snowflakes who still ignore signs that present an inconvenience to them.

Maybe corporate should keep their mags in a locked see-through display case, like how video games are kept. People can point to the ones they want and an employee can retrieve them.