I felt awkward and out-of-place in pretty much every shop I went to here. So both of my bikes (!!) were bought online. One ebay, one craigslist. But when the mountain bike needed a little work I decided to give one of the shops a second chance. When I rolled the bike in they immediately asked me how I liked it - which threw me off. They thought it was one of their demos!! I told them I liked it so much that I bought it, which broke the ice. They were exceptionally helpful after that, but I guess I needed some way to stand out. I think it also helped that I came in with a bike that would appear to be hand-built (not as in, custom made, but as in, none of the parts really "match" so obviously not bought off the rack) but well-thought-out bike. I didn't tell them that another shop owner had built it up for himself If thinking I had some say in it gets me better service, then I'll take it.