I know I'm in the minority, but we have never (in about 12 years) had problems with Performance (on-line). There are no stores here. People can get all huffy about "support your LBS," but the truth is that our local LBS (or several of them) don't make me that happy. Especially the one where I bought my current bike. Besides the fact that I won't buy another bike there and highly discourage anyone else from doing so, I haven't really had great experiences anywhere. There is one other store that is close, where DS worked in HS. Because of this, the owners know me and I get treated respectfully (well, OK, it's mostly "How's Scott?" when I go in there). I have bought a few accessories there, when I didn't have time to wait for TE, Terry, or Performance. I am not sure I would buy a bike there, though. That said, I wouldn't buy a road bike from Performance, but what Emily is describing sounds like a perfect option. I don't think she should be feeling badly about this choice!
We buy all of our parts from Performance and DH does all of the work. It saves tons of $ and most of all, DH likes doing the work. He plans to do some kind of wrenching as retirement job, when the time comes.
If the "ideal" bike shop opened by me, I would be very happy, but DH would still do all of the work on our bikes and we would still buy parts from Performance.