There are two LBS's convenient to my home. The first is a branch of a local chain of bicycle shops, with maybe 5 or 6 stores around the area. The other is a one shop family owned and operated store. As it happens, the chain store is the location most convenient.
When I decided to buy a new road bike, I stopped by the chain store. Now, every time I'd previously been in there buying brake shoes or bottle cages, etc. I noticed that there was usually one "adult" present (usually the mechanic with a bike up on the workstand behind the counter) while the rest of the staff consisted of teenagers. I walked in (by the way, I am 55 years old with gray hair and a beer gut) and announced that I would like to look at a road bike with a triple chainring and low gearing for the hills, and described the type of riding that I intended to do (recreational riding for exercise, all on the road).
One of the teenagers piped up and said he'd help me. First, he tried to tell me that I really needed a hybrid, and that hybrids allowed a more relaxed upright stance that I might find to be more comfortable. I told him that I didn't want a hybrid because I didn't like straight handlebars - I already had an old 10-speed road bike with drop bars, and I just wanted something with better gearing. Also, I preferred the multiple hand positions that the drop bars of a road bike allowed.
We then started to look at road bikes in my price range. He sized me up by eye, pulled one out of the rack, had me stand across it, and said that one looked good to him - that was the bike for me! No mention was made of taking measurements for sizing. (The bike he showed me, a Specialized something-or-other with an aluminum frame, carbon fiber fork, and "compact" geometry, seemed too small to me.) I said that I was kind of hoping I'd find something with a steel frame and a horizontal top tube. He said that nobody made that "old fashioned" stuff. That the new bikes were all like this, and were so much better.
I commented about how dainty and fragile all of the components looked - the chain, chainwheels, and especially the rear cogs - compared to my old 10-speed. The teenager replied that "today we have metallurgy and don't have to make the components out of stone any more".
OK, I'm thinking, we had men walking around on the moon when this twerp's PARENTS were still pushing Tonka trucks around the sandbox, and he's telling me about metallurgy! I'm riding a bike older than he is! Hell, I have UNDERWEAR older than he is! No way am I buying a bike from this kid.
I told him thanks, and when my bonus check came in I might be back. I then left and haven't been back to that shop since.
I confess that I ALMOST ordered a Mercier Corvus from bikesdirect.com, but when I went to their web site they were out of them in my size.
I finally went to the other shop, and it was like a breath of fresh air! The folks working there were all old enough to purchase adult beverages without benefit of a fake ID. Never once in the conversation was I addressed as "Dude". We had a nice conversation about the kind of bike I wanted, the pros and cons of different materials, the area where I rode and the hills. They showed me a bike in my price range, as well as another bike that was better but out of my price range. Then they mentioned Surly. I had read about the Long Haul Trucker on the internet, and was intrigued about that bike, but assumed it would be out of my price range. They checked, and I found that, if I bumped my budget up just a little, I could swing it. A deal was struck, a comprehensive sizing was done, and a Surly Long Haul Trucker was mine.
The moral of the story is - sell your customer what they want, and don't piss 'em off!