If a person that can't be bothered to return phone calls, gets mad at inquiries, expects customers to buy things just to show they are "genuine", and knowingly sells items outside their scope of knowledge to unsuspecting customers isn't rude then who is?

Likewise, if a professional who puts a higher priority to his personal preferences than the interests of his clients isn't arrogant than who is? After all, every good doc/software engineer/lawyer/scientist/prof/money manager/orthodontist puts his clients first. Why do LBSs think they are better than the rest of us? The fact that I hold LBS staff to the same standard as the rest of us is not a sign of disrespect or looking down, but quite the opposite.

Nearly every single quality of a "good lbs" you've defended in this thread is a direct manifestation of rudeness or arrogance. The sole exception is the ability to fix a bike properly, but experience shows that that seems neigh impossible in the face of such overwhelming rudeness and arrogance. Even if you're hypothetical "good" lbs did have the skill or craftsmanship to fix a bike properly no one would ever be able to tell because, from your description, the bike shop employees would be likely to arrogantly refuse the job on a lack of personal interest, if not throw a hissy fit at the mere inquiry, if not ignore the inquiry while accusing the potential customer of ingenuiness, if not simply ignore the phone inquiry genuine and ingenuine alike. It would be a miracle if a shop could ever get any work done with such policies and I think the truth is that such "good" bike shops really don't get much work done at all.

Professionalism is not about the retail, big box store mentality. It is about pride of workmanship. For retail business owners of any kind that includes managing the business and interacting with customers. A bike shop manager who doesn't want to interact with customers has a poor work ethic. He may very well be a craftsman when it comes to his personal cycling favorites, but as a bike shop manager he is incompetent. As customers both qualities are important. A bike shop manager who can't attend to his customers is doing just as much of a half assed job as a chain store which has no interest in the craft of cycling itself (it's just the other half of the ass). So the existence of such chain stores is really of no more advantage to us than the existence of LBSs (half assed is half assed no matter which half it is).

The funny thing is that you make out like we are advocating that bike shops have an obligation to "grab every bit of business" or "try to get rich" when most of what I am asking for is simply the same basic decency I would ask of any human being. If you're only point is that an LBS should have no obligation to behave like a big retailer or aggressive profit center then we agree. However, that does not give them a right to be rude and arrogant.

I thought that was what started this whole little argument. You made it quite clear that, in your opinion, the signs of a good lbs are the refusal to answer phones, inability or unwillingness to work on anything outside of their personal interests, etc, in short monumental arrogance and rudeness.