I find most shops around here so unfriendly/unhelpful for various reasons. This strikes me as odd because I live in Seattle and it's a very bike friendly town.

The responses I have gotten range from "20% non-refundable deposits" to "find road bikes with similar geometry and go off that". Most say they don't carry a lot of cross bikes (esp. small ones) and would have a hard time selling it if I chose not to follow through on the purchase. However,one shop is going to build both a 44 and 49 Bianchi for me and there is a 49 Specialized Tri Cross that I'm going to check out later today. So I am very happy about that!