Obviously bike shops come in many flavors and your story doesn't surprise me very much. In my limited experience shopping for higher end bikes, I've found that you need to be a little more discriminatory as a consumer. What I mean by this is that you need to be more selective about where you shop. You probably need to be looking for "boutique" type shops rather than the major brand retailers. If you are in a major metro area, there are probably a couple in town.