davebee writes:

When buying parts, complete bikes accessories or whatever, do you
prefer to give your custom to your lbs who in my experience will spend
a little bit of time chatting to you about the products suitable and
also about bikes in general, but who probably charge a little bit
extra; or do you prefer to go hunting on the internet and find the
cheapest price possible?

For me, I generally prefer to go to the lbs, but if the price
differential is particularly great (£30 - £50 ) then I will generally
buy from the internet.

My favourite LBS - which I was planning to drop into tomorrow more for
the crack than to actually buy anything particular - apparently today
has a sign on the door saying 'Closed due to unforseen
circumstances'. I really, really hope the two guys who run it are all
right - they're both really nice straightforward guys. But it's making
me think hard about my spending patterns. My partner and I have
between us spend at least £2,500 there this year... but we've spent
another couple of thousand at the Edinburgh Bike Co-op (which I also
really like but doesn't need our money so badly), and at least several
hundred more on line. If we'd spend more of that at the LBS, would
they have been on a solider footing?

Here's hoping they're both OK and the problem is transient...

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

-- mens vacua in medio vacuo --