Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
There's another common business model.
Many of the smaller manufacturers sell frames and forks only. Then they hook the bike shop up with a complete build kit and the shop assembles the whole thing.
This is a good thing. In the mid-90's I bought a Litespeed Catalyst as a bare frame and a complete build kit from QBP, both through my LBS. That allowed me to specify all of the details I wanted like crank arm length, bar width, stem length, cassette configuration, etc.
I assembled it myself but the shop would have done the work if I had requested it.