Originally Posted by radroad

Let's look at reality here. I can understand why kids in college or young adults in their 20's would enjoy working at a bike shop. Shop discounts, working with cool toys, maybe not so much pressure, they probably don't have a family to support.

But you have to wonder about 30-50 year old employees at bike shops. I'm not talking about the owner. But when someone who should be in their prime earning years is making minimum wage in a dead end job in an industry with sales numbers falling off the cliff, it's not too difficult to figure out that perhaps they're not prime job candidates and likely aren't especially intelligent.

You can't rely on these people for meaningful advice. You're best off doing the research yourself before stepping into the shop. But if you've already done the research, no point in 'consulting' with the not so well informed, not so bright shop employee. That means no need to step into the shop at all, meaning you can buy direct to consumer and save a couple of thousand clams on a nicer bike.

There's really no going back. Might as well try to make betamax and 8 track tapes a 'thing' again. Good luck with that.