Four shops have the same reaction when you come in? Maybe it's you.

What I see is four shops recognizing that you are a regular to the shop. Where I work, I notice the regulars, too. I notice the one's who stop in and browse for an hour or two, leaving with nothing. I recognize the ones who swing by while their wife is in the shop next door and have a bunch of questions until their wife comes over to say she's all done. I notice the ones who will quiz me every piece of a $3,000 bike but are really just want to buy a brake cable for their 30-year-old Curbside Speciale.

I don't make a dime more if you buy a water bottle from me or an $8,000, carbon, Dura-Ace, aero, whatever. But I still recognize you if you show up as much as once a month. If you have a habit of taking up my time without desire to purchase from me when I could be helping someone get on a bike for the first time in 10 years, guess which I would rather be talking to?

I like bikes. That's why I work in the bike industry. I don't work at a bike shop to enrich the owners, I work at a bike shop to enrich the community I am raising my family in. I understand that a dollar spent in a local, privately owned establishment is far better for the place I live than buying from some warehouse with an IT department.

So maybe it's you. They recognize you. They see you for who you are. Someone who treats them like a free encyclopedia. Just because you throw them a bone when you need a Presta-Schraeder adapter or a GU pack doesn't mean they should roll out the red carpet for you.