I was at a LBS yesterday for less than 10 minutes and was asked "can i help you" 5 times ... there were only 2 people working there ... and I was one of only 2 customers in the place. I'm trying to support the little guy folks, I really am.

Sooo..... Can we help you?

Nice post count, Satan. I'll look somewhere else. Maybe there is a Wal Mart nearby...

LOL! I better post again.

From your post, it didn't sound like you had a question, or a problem to solve. You said you were offered help multiple times. It sounds like the shop was paying attention. Were you just browsing? Did you not want their help?

As mentioned earlier, the LBS employees were being helpful, maybe suffering from short term memory loss, but helpful, and try getting that kind of service with an online supplier or at a big box.

One of the frequent criticisms of the bicycle megastore in my area is being ignored.

In my case, I very seldom go in ANY kind of specialty store where I expect people to ask if I need help, so it seems kind of awkward. But being asked is not a bad thing.

I don't mind at all being asked, but being asked that many times in such a short period just seems like they are trying to say they don't want you there. I've been in retail before and one of the first things they tell you to do is qualify your customer quickly. Not because it necessarily helps you make a sale, but if the person was planning on stealing something, it lets them know "I see you there, and I know what you are up to." I understand the need for this and I don't mind being qualified as a customer, but 5 times in 10 minutes is just harassment and it cost this particular shop a sale. There are plenty of other places around here to go and I won't be going back to that one.

Lucky. I was in a shop a couple of months ago with one other customer and two employees. Took me about five minutes for me to get one of the employees to get me some tubes.

Yes, I was browsing with the intention to buy. I always like to research and look at all the options so sometimes it takes me a while to make up my mind. Their hint that I did not want help should have been when after they said "Can I help you?" I said "no just looking around." one or two or three or even four times. When it came to the fifth time, I was out the door.

You said 5 employees and 2 customers -- maybe they were bored. Maybe they really wanted to help. Maybe you could just small-talk with them while you browse, it's easier to pick someone's brain when you do that, and find out things you weren't even aware you wanted to know.

Somehow, I don't seem to have that problem in my LBS -- maybe it's my face -- I've been told I look mean.

2 employees. 5 can i help you's. If there were 5 employees, I might not have been so freaked out. I look mean too.

Normally I reply to the question with "I'm just looking around, but I will let you know when I have questions."
sales people don't bother me after that.

There's a pharmacy in a town near here where I get my medication. Most of the time there are 5 or 6 staff milling around this tiny shop ... and 1 or 2 customers. It is a bit intimidating when everywhere you look, surrounding you, there is a staff member.

I have a theory. Let me know what you think about this. Could these bike shop people be purposely treating me badly because they can tell I'm military? I visited two more of these shops today and received similar crappy treatment.

Being offered help is crappy treatment....what?

It's all about context. You didn't note their tone of voice nor did you tells us in which neighborhood this was. Those would have been far more important details in determining their treatment of you.

If all you have is the quantity of times asked then all I can tell is that they're poor salesmen.

It may also not have been that you were military per se but that they thought you were one of the "riff-raff" that doesn't have enough money to be in one of their shops. In case you haven't realized it by now, there is a degree of elitism in some bicycle shops.

No, but I bet if you walk in there all paranoid that you're going to be treated a certain way, they might interpret it as sketchiness and act accordingly, thus confirming your bias. Relax.

Also, we cannot judge without information. Please submit a 5 minute re-enactment of the bike shop scene starring you. Bonus points for prop authenticity and attention to lighting.

No,badgering someone into leaving the store because 1. you are a shoddy salesman 2. you don't think a person is going to buy a 4000 dollar bike TODAY 3. you think this guy is in the military and you are a hippie and don't like soldiers in your store --- any of the above scenarios is wrong.

I have a theory too, and believe you should seek psychiatric counseling.

Clearly, you work in or own a bike shop.

The only appropriate response is to burn the shop down. Such horrid treatment.

I've done my time in Retail Hell (not a bike shop, though) and I've never heard of the phrase "qualifying the customer." Must be the latest Dilbertesque management theory, a la "who moved my cheese."
Anyway, don't write that LBS off. The next time you're there and they approach you, ask, "when is your next shipment of Breezers coming in?" If they can't answer that, they're not a bike shop worthy of the name.

Yes, "who moved my cheese" is a very accurate description and it's the Friedman indoctrination that I received. I would truly much rather be in the Army than to have to deal with that bs any more.

At my rural LBS yesterday. I don't normally use it because they are so overpriced, and going back to biking some years ago I bought a bike from them, later to discover it was 25% more expensive than anywhere else. But, with a biking weekend here, and new tyres delayed in the post, I had no option. The two staff were busy , so I went over to the tyre selection and started hooking out rubber. Within seconds I was being 'helped' by a guy whose first assumption was that I don't know one end of a bike from the other and tried to sell me MTB tyres with a 2.4 width which wouldn't fit my bike. I shooed him off and bought a couple of the cheapest 1.94 MTB tyres they had, to escape.

A Specialised road bike caught my eye, and #1 salesman pounced on me while I looked, saying he could adjust it to fit me, and I could have a test ride, and I looked like I would need a shorter stem, just wouldn't leave me alone to think, or to look at other bikes. Sho' nough, when I got home, I'd paid twice the internet price for the tyres, and the Specialised road bike I looked over was 15% marked up over High St. shops. Pressure selling and a price gouge? I won't be going back.

Buyer beware: novices pay more in some LBS's. Over-attentive sales staff can equal coercion.

No, but I have a competing theory -- that you view solicitiousness as crappy treatment because of the cultural difference with how life is in the military.

Alternately, bike shops tend to have lousy customer service training. Or else they figured you were good for a big sale, because you looked fit already.