Some people think that a lbs will do jobs for Jaffa cakes yet others think that they will only just scrape by if they make 30% on items they sell. There seems to be some completely mismatched thinking on here. Fwiw my bike shop charges for work and doesn’t take cake payment but it isn’t expensive.

I get a big pack of Jaffa cakes and eat them myself whilst fixing my bike

There seems to be some completely mismatched thinking on here.

STW today…

I just spent the afternoon swapping spannering for some work on my forks in my lbs. Some things are done for cost some for good will and some for what it costs. It’s all part of a bigger picture.

I dont have a misty eyed relationship with my lbs. I guess because Ive not been since I was about 12 years old and learnt the pretty basic skilz needed to maintain a bike myself. If I should ever suffer a lobotomy or require some specialised equipment that necessitates a trip, I’d expect to pay the poor sod that worked there.

Apparently a bag of doughnuts will suffice.

I have a LBS that seems incapable of supplying anything I want, nor doing work to any sort of expected standard. They ain’t getting their hands on my doughnuts!

birds suddenly appear?

Assuming this is a reference to my comments on the Endura thread. To clarify, I wasn’t claiming that this shop ‘scrapes by’, they’re doing quite well having just moved to bigger premises.

However, they wouldn’t be doing so well if everyone who came in expected them to sell stuff at the same price as an online retailer, tis all.

I was mainly curious and to what rocky mountain meant by ‘overpriced’.

I used (I don’t work there any more) to do favours and quick jobs for people who I liked or who were nice, that’s part of the deal. We provided great service in return for people buying stuff from us. What a shop won’t do is fit the bits you bought off the internet for a pack of biscuits, why would they?

birds suddenly appear?

my favourite answer to that is:

“Because of distortion in the space-time continuum, or, Jesus sneezing. You be the judge”

Some people think that a lbs will do jobs for Jaffa cakes yet others think that they will only just scrape by if they make 30% on items they sell.

The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Those people who can get stuff done for jaffa cakes (note I’m not one of them) have generally put a significant amount of money through the tills of the shop already. Personally I have a good enough relationship with several local (and not so local) shops to automatically get a discount in them – and sometimes a bit more – but that’s because I have previously put at least 4 figures worth of stuff through each of their tills (sometimes on a very good deal for me – but I’m assuming they were still making a decent profit when giving me a 20% discount on a £2k frame). I’m actually now feeling rather guilty at still getting a discount given I doubt I’ve even put 3 figures worth through any of their tills in the last couple of years, and until any of them start selling unicycle stuff it’s unlikely I will again.