I just posted to Dr. Fish's thread about the bad ones, but must report on a good one.
There is a shop in Liberty Lake, WA, just east of Spokane. It's in a supermarket strip mall. Kinda pricey, so I had been going to one of the box stores from a lot of stuff (they have a good selection). A couple of months ago, the flyshop started having a flytying table on the first Friday of every month. Nothing formal. Big screen TV has some fish porn video on and we mostly just swap lies. Sometimes we go a couple of doors down and get a pizza. Never any pressure to buy stuff, but I always do. They usually have something on special that I can't do without. I've been to this shop more in the last couple of months to get FF supplies than ever before. I never get the hard sell and never feel like anything but a valued customer even when I don't buy anything (which is, of course, rarely!!)
I went into another, now closed shop about 4 years ago to look at waders. The clerk immediately insisted that I needed the Guideweights ($400+). Nope, I told him, I don't get out that much. I was immediately branded an idiot for not wanting quality. I'm out the door in a flash and the shop is now closed.
Natural selection, I say.
Jeff
"If you don't loosen up that buckle on your heart and start to chuckle, your gonna die of boredom, Safety Joe" ~John Prine