Originally Posted by
datlas
Yes it's a thing. There is/was a local chain of bike stores in my area called "Bike Line" maybe about a dozen stores, the owner sold to Trek several months ago so they are all now rebranded "Trek" stores.
In my experience, the staff in my local Trek store is unchanged, but I can imagine how once a store goes corporate the quality could be uneven.
Heh. I had no idea they sold out. Bike Line started from the relatively high end store called Bike Tech that was last located on the 1200 block of Locust Street in Philly. (Original location as around the corner on 13th.)
There is a guy who works at the Bike Line on Delaware Ave. He's been a mechanic in the city since I was in my 20s. He's also the guy who did some seriously bad work on my IF back in the mid-2000s when he was a Breakaway on Chestnut St. I wouldn't let him look at a bile of mine.