[Dangeranger]

This is quite accurate.

In my past I worked at a greasy bike shop and turned wrenches for several years. The smaller bike shops without the gloss and glamour of high end branded stores have a different mentality, and they are far more scrappy than their more "elite" cousins.

What you'll find is that when times get tough the elite shops will shut down because their overhead is higher, they carry more stock of higher priced merchandise, and they tend to have an attitude of exclusion toward their customers.

Meanwhile the scrappy grease shop will just cut back to carrying the best selling items, reduce some operating hours, and maybe drop a brand or two until the market picks back up.

There's a reason why the smaller shops usually have been around since the 70's or 80's and the larger elite shops always look shiny and new; The smaller shops live and the larger fancier shops die.