Originally Posted by Pat
It is my understanding that the LBS does not make much money selling bicycles. They make money on their repair and maintenance work on bikes and on clothes and accessories. So the LBS has pretty limited ability to "deal" because they don't have much mark up.
According to that logic bikes should be free (initial loss) in order to sell more consumables indefinably. Kind of like Duracell giving you a free flashlight so you will buy batteries, forever.
They do make some money selling bikes.