Go shop there.

Don't worry about the lease thing - that's a standard line for any business that's closing down. "Lost our lease!". We used to joke about that - "what, they don't know where they put it?" until we were the one who "lost our lease".

If you feel bad for the shop owner/s, pay cash.

This is the time to pick up things like tools, expendables (tubes, tires, etc.), and new old stock (NOS) - cheap BMX bike, a beater bike for commuting, etc.

Healthy shops regularly look through closing-down-shops in order to get more workstands/truing stands, tubes, tools, second air compressor, a few boxes of tools, or whatever. A rival shop can also pay to have all the calls forwarded to them (they just pay the phone book bills). etc etc. It's like those nature documentaries where the lion kills the antelope. Once the antelope is down, everyone gets a piece of it, lions to flies. It's all recycled back into the system.

Around what town/area is it? And how long were they around? I need an old quill type 0.833" stem

cdr