Seems unreasonable for them to have no flexibility on this.
This time of year, bike shops aren't that busy yet. If the salesperson won't go for the collateral ideas, ask him to come along with you.
As an aside, there was a doctor (yes, a medical doctor) in the Seattle area that would walk in to a shop in scrubs, ask to do a test ride on whatever the nicest bike was on the sales floor, and never come back. He was only busted because he through his coffee cup away in a shop's wastebasket and they pulled a print off of it.