need to buy my wife a bike

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I know this is done, our LBS's know it; the customer who tries bike after bike, jots down sizes and models .... gets it on Craigs or E-bay.

I've always objected to this because it takes advantage of the shops time and expertise.

It just balances out the far more frequent occurrence of people going into an LBS and walking out with a bike that they didn't intend to buy and that perhaps isn't the most appropriate bike for them.
I think jotting things down on a notepad is a bit too obvious, but we all SHOULD be shopping around trying many bikes well before we buy anyway.