Time to hit the shops (and tidy them up a tad)

Ouch, it's getting cold out there now - a few weekends off the bike and my how things have changed in the temperature department. Whilst it's not quite icicle on the nose type weather it's certainly chilly enough to notice on the tootsies and make me start to think about some new winter kit which, as with any bike related purchasing, fills me with both delight and trepidation. The delight comes from being able to purposefully stalk the internet looking for (what I perceive to be) cool kit, the trepidation comes from the commitment and trust that has to be made when buying clothing on the web. It's nothing to do with credit card fraud, it's simply that unlike mechanical equipment which you know will fit (even if you don't know how you will fit it), you simply haven't got a bloody clue how any cycling clothing is sized which means that you either order the same things in 3 sizes and then lose the benefits of free delivery by spending £20 on sending the wrong sizes back or you take a guess and, if you don't strike it lucky, embark on a relay of return and reorder. Wiser souls might say just to pop along to your local bike shop, try on what you want and then order it cheaper on-line (this method has been brilliantly picked up on by the poster ads for dixons.com - genius!) and I have not been averse to this method for many a purchase both bike and non-bike related (I am still carrying the guilt of 2 free-of-charge hours spent with the Peter Jones 'nursery advisor' helping us compile a list of essentials that we then proceeded to use as a blueprint for what we needed to look for in the, shall we say, less expensive shops). However, the only problem with the try then buy on-line method is that, despite living in a major international city, the selection in nearly every shop is exactly the same - Altura, Endura, a bit of Assos (to give the pretence that they are a 'pro' shop) and now the, sadly-not-as-good-as-I-had-first-thought Mavic and it's all lovingly jammed onto rails on plastic hangers with the care and attention of a closing down sale in Cancer Research. Condor are bravely bucking this trend but surely there is a big enough market in a city of 7 odd million to justify a few more shops with a decent selection and a bit of love shown in the display department?