Originally Posted by Cypress

I worked in a few different shops across the west when I was younger, so I'll play Devil's advocate.

We'd get asked multiple times a day if we could bring in size-specific equipment like bikes/shoes/helmets so a customer could try it out. Out of the stuff we actually brought in, only 1/4 of those customers bought the item. If I had to guess, I'd say half of the people that wanted to "try it on" lied through their teeth and just needed to know their size so they could buy it online to save a few bucks. This leaves the shop with a heinous amount of inventory (read: tied up money) that either ends up selling for/below cost, or taxed. This is tough on a low-margin business that's losing the battle to the internet every single day.

Try to keep in mind that for every person that genuinely wants to test ride a $7k bike so they can take it home that day, there are at least 25 people that just want to test the waters and have ZERO intention of signing the dotted line. We would intentionally keep the plastic test ride/placeholder pedals off of the high-end bikes just to give that extra cushion between serious buyers and people who were just wasting time before their Applebee's buzzer went off.

Another point to make is that most customers buying high-end bikes expected the bike to be FLAWLESS. Scuffed-up cranks, pad residue on the rims, road dust in the headset gaps, scratched paint, dirty chain, etc. would incite the "I want a discount because this bike is used" argument. We once had a customer order a Madone in, then immediately warranty the frame 3 times (!) before he even took delivery of the bike because he would find the tiniest paint flaws straight from the factory. It's not uncommon for customers to test ride the exact bike they want, then order in a new one just to make sure they are getting the newest bike.

I guess my point is that while you may have good intentions, there are many many many people that ruin it for the rest of us.

That's retail in a nutshell.