Quote Originally Posted by laura* View Post
Go to the LBS and ask to peruse their QBP catalog*. If they are serious about ordering parts for you, then they should have two versions of the catalog - one with the wholesale prices which they won't want to show you, and one without prices. The catalog is two volumes the size of a phone book.

Ordering from an LBS can sometimes be a frustrating experience. LBS's usually hold orders until they can place one bigger order with their distributor(s). (They can actually get penalized if they don't usually do this.) You may have to wait a week or more for them to place their order, and then another week as their big order is delivered via ground shipping. However, they can place an order immediately and have it sent out next day delivery - if you're willing to pay the shipping.

* QBP = Quality Bike Parts, perhaps the biggest distributor. Odds are that any established LBS orders from them, though there are also other distributors.

I don't know, I think that they should not get annoyed when a customer comes in and buys something, even if the same customer was just there a few days earlier, because a sale is a sale and that's why they're in business.

And if they're really good, they'll ask if the customer needs anything else, and suggest possible related things they'll need, when the customer is buying something. Because that's how they increase their average sale, while generating good will at the same time by helping the customer get everything in one trip instead of having to come back over and over.