You've touched on a few things worth discussing. Yesterday I went into one of my LBSs here in New Orleans to pick up a few tubes. I was greeted at the door by a helpful sales person. He directed me to the tubes and asked if I needed anything else. I told him that I was going to look around a bit. I was greeted no less than 4 times as I walked about. One guy asked if I needed anything. I said nah I'm good. He said something like "just kicking tires?" I told him I came in to get tubes but couldn't come into a bike store without looking at everything and enjoying the smell." He smiled and nodded knowingly. I love the smell of a bike store.

Your experience that the ownership and few other key players are good is the norm. But it's VERY difficult to find and keep good low wage hourly staff in a small store. Most small business owners will tell you that it's their biggest challenge. I don't think too many LBS owners are getting rich. Unfortunately those low wage hourly employees are often the ones we are most likely to go face to face with.

A third point you brought up is the old days. The internet has assured that the old days are gone. In the old days we all pretty much had to go to the LBS for everything. Now much of the money that would go into the LBS is going to online vendors. An LBS simply can't compete with internet warehouses on variety of stock and prices. That money I am spending online could help pay enough to keep good workers around. Our collective customer service mentality has changed too. We have become accustomed to a lower level of service. When Wal-Mart first started taking on the other big box retailers, they were about low prices AND customer service. As hard as it is to believe, Wal-Mart used to emphasize and be good at customer service. Our world has changed.

When I lived in Gulfport MS, I used to ride with a mechanic from one of my LBSs and the manager and main sales guy from another. They were great people with a passion for bikes and riding. One of the stores was a family business. The main sales guy didn't ride. He probably tipped the scales at 300 pounds. He was a nice guy and tried to be helpful, but his lack of passion was evident. Oddly, the converse can be true too. You have an LBS with a few hard core racers on staff. They struggle at times to relate to recreational riders. I have watched in amazement as some of these folks have overwhelmed their customers by going way over their head. Here's another issue. Not really listening to the customer. I wanted to do something a bit unusual for my wife. She has some issues with her wrists where she can't put any weight on them. She loves a cruiser like riding position. I decided I wanted to start with a good quality flat bar road bike, add a stem riser, sweep back bars and a cushy saddle. The end result being a fairly light "high performance" cruiser. I visited 4 bike shops in New Orleans. NONE truly listened to or got what I wanted to do. One employee basically argued with me. I can wrench, so I ordered a bike and the parts I wanted online.

Your assessment is spot on in my opinion. An LBS is a crap shoot of sorts. I have 8 bikes at my house. Two are LBS bikes, one is a craigslist bike, two are mail order bikes and three are builds where I used an assortment of parts most of which I bought online. With good service at an LBS, two of those non-LBS bikes could have been LBS purchases.

Edited to add this: I just dropped down and skimmed the Road Cycling forum. It's safe to assume that the folks that post there are enthusiasts who are generally knowledgeable. If the advice dispensed there is similar to what the posters would dispense as bike shop employees, then you can appreciate the difficulty a shop has in attracting a good employee.