We went shopping for a mountain bike today, for my wife, and we were surprised by the wide range of service.
Last week, we went to Erik's in Oakdale. Although the saleswoman was helpful, they did not have a wide range of selection in the kind of bikes that my wife was looking for.
Today, the salesperson at Galyans (now Dick's) in Woodbury was helpful in that he told us they did not have what we were looking for right out. My wife liked that he didn't try to change her mind or focus into getting something just because they had it. We need to go back there sometime for fishing gear, and they had some pretty cool pants.
The Penn Cycle in Woodbury had several employees working, but noone provided any service to us. To get a seat readjusted so that my wife could try out the bike, I had to ask for a tool to do it myself and was given a hex bar too long for the seat/reflector combination. I don't know where that guy went. I cannot see ever walking into that store ever again.
The Gateway bicycle shop was interesting, it had a naturey feel about the whole store, like when you walk into a ski chalet, or that mountaineering store that used to be on the West Bank. The owner, Bill, I believe was the fellow helping us, and he was very helpful and answered a lot of questions and provided support. We went through about three bikes before we had the one we wanted, but he bore with us. At the end of the day, we ended up buying the bike and a lot of components, and we'll probably come back when our son is tall enought to ride a 12" bike.