Once I stopped with my bike at a local bike store and bought a pair of brakes pads. When I asked the guy for pliers so I can pull out the pins and insert the new pads he said that he is going to charge me for labor for letting me using his pliers for 10 seconds.
On the other hand, I went once to local Performance to buy a Park Tool FR-5 but they had only FR-5G which did not fit my bike. The mechanic spent 10 minutes or so modifying it to look like a FR-5 and did not charge me a penny.
Guess which of the two store I keep frequenting.
My experience is that large chains like Performance and REI are less likely to nickel and dime you and are more oriented toward long term customer retention. Maybe this is why they are large.