Originally Posted by
Grim
Frustrated as well.
My LBS has been a family business since 1978. I have been a customer off and on since 1979 when I moved to the area when I was 13. The son who is my age now owns the place and he is a GREAT proponent for the area and does a ton for the community. I am a member of the local advocacy group that he is part of as a board member and a sponsor and on a first name basis.
I will probably never buy a bike from them. I buy all my bikes used and he doesn't sell much of what I am interested in such as racks, bags etc all though he will order anything I ask for.
That said they are a high end bike shop and cater to people riding Madone's not so much the budget commuter, self reliant type like myself. I try to give him the buisness whenever possible but when he is close to 70cents a spoke higher then I can buy online with free shipping for the same brand spoke it really adds up. When you are rebuilding set of 36 spoke wheels it is $50 bucks. I am about to do that again. I have put them on the spot and gotten some discounts.
What he has going for him is his people. They have always gone above and beyond and know me by name despite my average purchases being under $20 a visit.
Want to support him but I just cant afford it sometimes.
The problem is capitalism. Sort of. My LBS is great; they have good mechanics, they often do small jobs for free, and they even offer advice on how to make DIY repairs. They've been getting a lot more expensive lately, though, which has bothered me enough to complain to them about it. Their response? Rent. They don't actually own the building they are in, and the owner of the building has been relentlessly raising rents for the past couple of years. He can get away with it, too, because the neighborhood has gradually been transformed from small industrial to a collection of wine bars and places that sell Italian shoes for $400. The LBS, which is actually very popular, has responded by increasing their prices so they can pay the increased rents. They don't really want to leave the neighborhood, and since the neighbors are richer, they'll probably survive the price increases. The bottom line is that I pay more for a wheel build than I used to so that some rich guy who doesn't care about bikes at all can buy a nicer BMW. Like many others here, if I'm just buying parts for work I can do myself, I now just buy elsewhere.
That said, it's important to keep things in perspective. The LBS in question still gets a lot of business from me. I recently paid them $40 to do my brakes, because I hate doing brakes myself. It seems like a lot of money, but compared to the cost of a brake job for a car, it's sort of trivial.