I live in a small town and the closest LBS that I enjoy going to is about 2 hours away by car. Needless to say I don't shop there very often.

Lately I have begun shopping for a new bike, I have a budget and a good idea of what I want. I have always had a good shopping experience while I am at this store so it is my first stop when I decided to go shopping.

As I enter the store I see a couple familiar faces and I don't believe for an instant that they would remember me (as I only make it in about 2 times a season).
I am totally ignored for almost 20 minutes. I am taking bikes down off the racks, sitting on them and pushing myself around the store.... nothing. Finally somebody yelled across the store "Have you been helped?". I say no and we strike up a conversation. No harm no foul, right?

I tell him my budget, what I am looking for, how much I ride and so forth. I recognize him from the previous trip to the store but I know he doesn't have a clue who I am since he introduces himself to me for about the third or fourth time now... After a quick talk he quickly narrows down my search to three bikes in the shop and sets me up on test rides. So far so good.

The first bike I ride is OK but nothing that would make me want to bust out the bankcard. The second bike is awful - it is one of the worst test rides I have ever done. The geometry was wrong and it just jarred me stupid after about three minutes. I quickly returned to the store and grabbed the third bike. This third one was beautiful, I almost didn't want to go back to the store! Light, nimble and responsive, it fit me like a glove so back to the store to see what we can do with it!

As I return to the store the salesman in waiting and asked what I thought. I explained to him my views on each bike and I swear to you this was his response "Really? that second bike is our bestseller to older men such as yourself" I respond "Older? I'm 39." He says "Then you must be stupid" (a more harsh slang version of this word was used).

His friend behind the mechanics station is beginning to laugh and says to him "leave the guy alone, not everybody likes that bike".

Now if this had been a friend that I know and see on a regular basis I would understand jabs at each other every now and then, but as I stated prior, this guy has no clue who I am and after then ten minute lecture as to why I should like the compact geometry of this particular "team model bike" I began to feel as though this little snot did think I was stupid.

I became a little disgruntled at the elitist attitude these guys were displaying and simply said that I would still need to look around a bit and left, as I was leaving I noticed that my salesman was wearing a shirt that said "Support your brick and mortar bicycle shops". Hmmm...