Why support your LBS?
OK, so I know that's a bold thread title, but I genuinely want to know. I'm struggling with it. In general, my belief system is to support local business, try to live as environmentally friendly as current society reasonably allows(avoiding plastic, etc), be nice to others, etc. But more and more I'm finding it difficult to support LBS. Their prices seem to keep going up, and generally speaking, the service kind of seems to be going down. I recently had a stuck BB removed and it took three shops to find one with the tool to remove a 1990s BB. The charged me $20 for 10 minutes of work. I usually do my own work anyway. In that case, it would have been half the price to buy and own the tool, and do it myself(I would have if I had known it would be $20 to pull a BB). I go into shops and get "well, that's not from the Newest line of stuff, so we'll have to order it. We'll have it in a week. It'll cost $50." or I can order it online and have it to my door in four days for $30. Is this just a fluke of bad luck with where I live? Or is this just how things are going these days? Should I consider spending my money "foolishly" to try to support local people rather than big companies, because the local people honestly Can't come close to those prices? I've never worked at a shop, so I don't know if a $50 msrp means they pay $45 and charge $50 to pay their employees, or if they get it for $10 and charge $50 because that's msrp. Obviously I'm exaggerating for the sake of explanation, but hopefully it gets my point across. REI will charge $150msrp for something that I can easily find online for $100. They order in huge bulk, so I know they aren't paying nearly that. They're charging what the market will pay. Are LBS doing that, so I shouldn't feel bad, or should I be trying to support them even though it doesn't "make sense" for me financially? Are LBS just local business trying to get by, or are they priced much higher for the convenience of people who know nothing about bikes, and I shouldn't feel bad if I don't support them since I work on my bikes?