I’m sympathetic with your position; it’s very difficult in this new internet driven market economy. Fortunately, for brick & mortors, everyone doesn’t yet buy their parts online but it is a looming threat that bike shops have to take seriously with their own creative marketing. I suggest (tongue in cheek) that you thicken up your patience and take each situation as an opportunity to highlight your uncomparable customer service, deep knowledge of cycling to sell your services and your goods to that customer who may turn into a long term relationship; consider it a chance to show the budget minded consumer comparable products and explain the considerable extra value they would have enjoyed had he or she purchased it through your shop. Every customer that walks into your shop is a chance to create a two more. The brick & mortar is essential to the industry and community.

You’re absolutely right. Fortunately, we’re on top of most of that stuff. We definitely don’t rest on our laurels. Unfortunately, we rarely get a chance to rest.

It’s true that fixing bikes isn’t rocket surgery, and I constantly encourage folks to fix as much on their own bikes as they’re comfortable attempting. But my patience is very thin for folks that shop online and then bring the parts to our shop for installation. If everyone did this, we would be out of business or our shop rate would be $150/hour. As much as anything, it sucks to see someone get ripped off buying a piece of junk on the internet and then come to us for the bad news. I’d rather help folks do it right the first time.

And a quick note on supporting your local shop. Please check with your local bike shop before you shop online. It’s getting increasingly difficult to pay the bills at the brick and mortar shops, but there are more and more people seeking our expertise every day. If the shops can’t pay the bills then the real world experts will be gone and we’ll all end up depending on the self-appointed online “experts”.