LBS and womens bikes

[Owlie]

Moderncyclista, I think you hit the nail on the head. Because women still comprise a relatively small portion of cyclists overall (road, mountain, commute, whatever), it makes more business sense from the shop's perspective to stock what they know is going to move. Likewise, if you go to most LBSes, they dedicate much of their stock to road bikes because the "roadie elite" are probably seen as more likely to plonk down a lot of money in their stores, as opposed to buying a low- to mid-price bike to minimize loss due to theft. I think the money thing is the same in road bike land. A few weeks ago we had a thread about why women didn't ride. One idea that came up repeatedly was "beginner women are less willing to spend a lot of money on a bike." So why stock the higher-end WSD stuff if it's not going to move?

My home LBS is pretty big, with several locations. Their women's road bikes are sadly lacking. They stock the mid-range sizes (48, 51cm), with not much on the high or low end of the bell curve. It's annoying. (And they don't have anything nicer than partial 105 on the floor.)
ETA: And they don't have anything in the way of WSD mountain bikes, either!