My sister is getting a hybrid. She lives in a land far away (So Cal). She's getting a Giant hybrid. I'm confident her basic bike size is pretty much OK but I know she's commented about sore hands a few times. I'm sure as she begins to take up cycling she'll strengthen her core but in the mean time it's been my advice to take care to work with the LBS to get a proper stem length to fine tune that distance as well as to explore moving her seat back a bit so as to help with her basic balance. Her LBS is in a pretty busy area with a lot of competition and apparently it's a well known place for racers so I'm guessing the folks are competent. Does my advice seem sound? What else might one consider - in terms of bike fit - regarding hybrids, which by their nature have a person already sitting a bit upright?

seriously though, here hands hurt her when she's on the OLD bike - so everyone is to make assumptions (including the sales guy at the bike shop) about her old bike and her position on that bike as well as how she ends up on that bike after riding for 15+ minutes... ???

If you wanna be big bro (or little bro), then I would call the shop in question, speak with the mgr about your concerns. Give Sis the mgr's name and if she goes to him, he'll likely know how best to proceed. And if you want to be more 'thorough', convince your Sis to bring her old bike along for comparison... A quick flip of bikes in the parking lot will at least give her some confidence that the new bike starts out moe betta...

One thing they do at the factory is cut the fork steerer tube to a formula for the frame size.

then if that is too low then it has to be undone with accessories like stem raisers..

a New bike there is resale trade in possibilities to have them order the same fork with an un cut steerer

and add spacers to make the typical thread less headset work..
the shorter fork has value as a replacement part to the shop so a good credit should be offered .

I have a bike , that would have been better if that was possible.

I had to do it the hard way to raise the bars.
[because it was not new]

[In the process I managed to ad a second stem for accessories like a front bag to mount on it.
that too would have been simpler with a long steerer tube..

There are all sorts of stem risers, adjustable stems, and high rise handlebars that can help with this. Keep in mind you may need to get new cables if you raise them up too much.

-- Sam