Supporting Local Bike Shop: confused MTB noob here.

I might come off as a tightass condescending asshole, but here goes:

Ok, guys, so I decided to dust off my 2001 Norco VPS Drop and ride some of my fat off. I read a lot about supporting the local bike shops on reddit and I'm the kind of guy who rarely buys local. My policy on buying local is it has to be no more than 15% on top of online prices.

The rationale behind it is I'm all for supporting local businesses as long as they don't gouge the customer. Most mom and pop shops charge thru the ass for products I can buy online for half off. For example my local bike shop sells Panaracer tires for $62.99. The same tire is $29.99 - $39.99 from hundreds of shops online, big an small. I've heard all the bullshit about how you need less overhead for selling online but it's all fucking bullshit. The reason why is that while you might have less overhead, you are competing with 3,000 stores, while LBS is competing with 3 (if that).

Online retailers buy the tire for $26 and sell for $29.99. Local bike shop buys the same tire for ~$35 and sells for $59.99. We can see that the markup is fucking massive. I understand that they have to pay wages, rent, power all that bullshit. I'm perfectly aware of that. I know the mechanics get paid crap. I also know that owners make a fucking fortune off the store (bla bla tell me sob stories about how they barely stay afloat while driving Lexuses). So say if they asked $45 for the tire, I would totally buy it no questions asked. But if they want nearly 50% markup they can stick a telephone pole in their ass sideways. For $60 I can buy a fucking car tire that takes a lot more material and power to produce, and has much more rigorous checks and certifications. I am aware about supply and demand so don't waste your breath explaining why the bike tire is not $6.99.

I asked if they could rebuild my fork and they said "uuhhhhhhhh... ehhhhhh... we send them somewhere else". There was no info posted anywhere about local trails or competitions. I felt no "love" atmosphere you get from motorcycle shops in the area. All I could see was a bunch of low paid assholes trying to push overpriced merch on unsuspecting public. Some family came and bought a kid's bike for $200 that could be had for $120 elsewhere.

There was no one "available" to install my tires because mechanic does not work on saturdays and I have to wait till monday. I understand the mechanic wants to have the weekend off like everyone else, I have no problem with that, but the fucking cunts didn't tell me that when I called them asking if I can bring my wheels in to replace the tires.

Anyways, I feel very disappointed. Maybe it was a "corporate" local bike shop, I don't know, but I felt like I'm in BestBuy, not a community-oriented mom&pop shop. I was ready to gladly pay the $60 (edit: for labour) they wanted to install 2 tires but the moment I saw the part prices and disinterested clerks, all I could think of is "fuck the greedy assholes".

I saw none of that shit you guys talk about when you talk about local bike shops.