Thanks everyone.

I certainly agree that if I buy new it will be local. In fact if I buy used, it will be local too. And given a choice, I will ALWAYS buy from the little guy. I feel that huge corporations will have no loyalty to me, they can and will move whereever they think the profit is. (And I include REI here, who seems only nominally a coop.) And while I may find an excellent clerk one week, next week, it may be a totally new person.

I just didn't know if bike shops expect you to not look elsewhere. In car lots, they want you to buy today, because they don't want to walk off the lot. It just seems that car lots are adversarial to their customers, and I've only ever found one that I have felt that treated me well.

I am glad to know it sounds like there are bike shops oriented to servicing their customers. I just always feel kind of like a rube, not understanding why a person pays thousands for a bike. I feel second class, when I ask why I should spend more on something. If the quality is there, fine, but I want to be shown it, not made to feel like I shouldn't ask. (Hmm, do I detect a chip on my shoulder? Maybe a whole log? )

(I grew up in a working class family , and as a girl to boot, with a 160 IQ. Rarely have I felt in my element. )

And yes, I am afraid of being sold a bike, just because it has been on the floor for too long. (And I worked in life insurance for years, and I think now think that systematic cheating is just built into that whole industry, and it's well meaning employees don't even see it, because they've been conditioned to it. )

But when I DO find a LBS who is dedicated to the local community, I want to keep him/her in business. Just like I prefer my local independent coffee shop, with their thrift shop decor, to the glossy Starbucks on the same block. Like someone said, I will then know who to kick in the butt, because I will be a LOT closer to the owner, and it won't be just some poor schmuck earning a few bucks an hour wearing my boot prints!

Mary