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Excellent question, and one I will answer aimed at what I assume the audience here at LFGSS is, and not just people in general.
I would imagine (again, i'm making assumptions) that post posters on here are the 'bike person' at their place of work or friendship group, so the best thing you could probably do, is recommend that when people come to you for advice, that they go to a shop. Quite often we see someone come in with some half worn out gatorskins, an old cassette of no providence and some bashed around but new 7 years ago bar tape that their friend/colleague has given them to fit, and then also told them to buy a brakeset off W*ggle. In this case, you're actively harming our business, as well as often good-intentioned advice not being that useful to the bewildered friend/flatmate etc.
The average LFGSS person will visit their bike shop for things like buying some brake outer, a general nosey and a chat, a high-complexity/low value job like tapping a BB or facing a crown race, and usually something like an obscure part or something they've forgotten like a barb and olive for the build they're doing. They'll proudly announce (or demonstrate) that they do all their own work on their bike (thereby basically saying to us staff that they're never going to spend much here), and buy things that basically say "I've bought everything else off Wiggle/Pinkbike/LFGSS/Bike24" but I forgot this tiny part, and then wonder why we don't roll out the red carpet. If you've been in a few times, we are more likely to be helpful, but we also can sense the person who is basically 'testing' us "Hey, do you do Campag? I've got some shifters I was thinking need a rebuild..."
What would we like you to buy? How about a t-shirt, the odd inner tube, tyres (we will almost always cut a deal on them if it's a quick transaction tbh) and the odd consumable that is selling at near RRP online anyway. Mid-pandemic I was selling 11-34 11 speed cassettes (we never ran out, even when Sigma, Wiggle etc etc all did), cheaper than anywhere, and even now if a regular customer comes in, we sell consumables like that for about 10% off RRP so basically the same as online, but with super fast magic in your hand delivery.
There is definitely an obsession with doing your own work on your bike and getting things the cheapest possible. I can cook eggs but neither I, nor the chef in my local cafe, see it as a failure of my character if I get them to cook me brunch. Nor do I feel the need to tell them that I usually cook my own eggs.
We are pretty busy in my shop, and profitable, but unfortunately it does come about as a bit of a result of being fairly mercenary in what jobs we can take on and what doesn't make short or long term commercial sense. In the case of the hypothetical wheel rebuild above, if you're just bringing that in, having worn out a rim, your bike will have been knackered too, but you're obviously not bringing that in. We do rebuilds more often as part of a full service.
tl;dr- basically, I don't actually expect people from here to buy much, but it would be nice if you referred people sometimes. Also understand if/why we don't roll out golden customer service to people we would happily share a beer or three with.
I’m curious. What should we be asking bike shops to do?