My LBS does not carry clothes.I ordered a pair of shorts and gloves from Performance on July 16th,they just arrived today August 3rd.This would not have been too big a deal if I had not been coming back from a 10 year layoff and had no shorts.I did a lot of business with Performance 10+ years ago because I lived in rural Texas and the nearest bike shop was 60 miles away.Back then I could order something and have it in a week.
The other day I decided I wanted to swap my knobbies out for some road tires.I took a look in the Performance catalog and thought the Michelin WildGripper City tires looked pretty good.My knobbies are 2" so I figured I would need a pair of 1.5" tubes and tire levers also.With shipping this totaled up to $50.95.I thought about how long it was taking my shorts to arrive and went to the LBS.I told the guy what I wanted;he had the tires!Total $54.00.With the Performance order I would have gotten 3 tubes....but the wait!$3.05 worth of instant gratification.
BTW my average speed is up 2.5 mph