Re; "snot ball rollers" and time for the transaction.

DanTheMan, be honest here. Did you hit up the shop at a peak time and tend to do that a lot? If so I can see where you could be on some sort of "Make them pay for it" list. If you self analyze yourself and can admit that you sort of fit that profile then you need to be more fair to the shop in the future. But to be fair from the sounds of your post you don't seem like this is a regular sort of nickel and dime sort of event for you.

As for time needed for this transaction if the shop can't put such parts into a bag in less time than that there's something wrong with the shop's parts inventory organizing. The bearing balls is a two minute issue to count them out from bulk stock so $10 is a bit much by most standards. The brake cable tensioner (whatever that is by it's correct name?) should be a regular part unless it's for a really old style of brake. So that leaves the screw and nut. If the nut had to be some oddball to fit into the recess of the derailleur I can see it taking a bit of time. But again, if the shop guy was busy he could have just had Dan root through the big boxO'junk to find what he needed instead of doing it himself. So I'm sticking with the stand that this was over the top pricing provided Dan isn't one of those "snot ball rollers". The shop that I hang out at a lot and even fix the odd flat or small problem while I sip on a beer knows that for some things you need to take a bit of a loss to get them back to buy the bike and get the bigger rent paying servicing jobs from them. It sounds like Dan's shop doesn't realize that. A lot of folks will see such pricing as being a gouge and when it's time to pay for that power train replacement or to buy a bike or to get their spring tuneup done they'll go to where they got a deal or two on some small bits because they will see that shop as being "more fair". And it's those bigger servicing jobs where the shops make their money. Even selling the bikes themselves in an all level shop where the vast majority of bikes sold are low to middle end doesn't bring in enough money to keep the lights on. It's servicing those bikes over the next few years that does. So it pays to not gouge for a screw and nut like this shop did to get Dan to come back in when he needs a big list of major part or some big servicing job done.