The owner of my local bike shop describes his work as "we're a utility." When I moved here last year, I planned to buy a bike because it's bikeable and it was the first place I went on the first Monday morning I was here. While I was waiting around for them to open, a man rolled down the hill in the parking lot with the chain hanging off his old and originally cheap bike. The owner said "Let me fix that" and did and the man peddled off to wherever he was going without having to pay in about the time it took you to read this.

The shop is run on a sliding scale and weight weenies can buy weight weenie gear at weight weenie prices and homeless vets can get a bike at homeless vet prices and I get what I get at something in between and feel good about paying because I trust that the money is going toward sustaining something that helps people who need help.

But I'm worried that he'll go out of business because the pandemic is killing his parts supply and the new bike distributors are dealing with empty warehouses.

What I see in the article is a bike shop I probably wouldn't patronize because it rationalizes treating some people badly. It's not any more difficult to be nice to non-customers instead of angry at them. I just don't want to deal with angry small business people. Ultimately they are not trustworthy. YMMV.