I think the situation is a little different there at REI. If you go in a Ford dealership for service, you expect the guys there to know everything they need to know about Fords. You do not expect them to know everything about Cadillacs or Mercedes. On the other hand, if you go to a "General Mechanic", those folks may not know as much about Fords, but will almost surely know a little bit about Cadillacs and Mercedes, too.

With REI, they don't present themselves as a general bike service shop. They sell bikes, they hopefully know the bikes they sell inside and out, but I wouldn't expect them to know all about bikes they don't sell, regardless of how popular they were or are. And I wouldn't expect them to stock spare parts for bikes they don't sell or didn't sell, either. Even with the tools, I kind of doubt they'd stock them if they weren't applicable to some bike that REI sells or has sold.