Ask the LHBS owner for the Malt Analysis Sheets for both malts (or look them up yourself!)
They'll tell you everything about the malt from whether the type of barley was 2-Row or 6-Row to the Lovibond and Diastatic power of the malt! You'll even get protein content, fine grind extract, beta glucan and soluble/total protein ratios to help you make decisions on your mash and water.
Briess and Weyermann have some of the more informative analysis sheets.
Pale Ale Malt:
Diastatic Power: 85 Lintner
SRM: 3.5 Lovibond
Two Row Malt (perhaps termed Brewers Malt):
Diastatic Power: 140 Lintner
SRM: 1.8 Lovibond
As you can see the "two row" labeled malt is going to have higher diastatic power which will help convert a lot of adjuncts such as corn and rice. It will also be lighter in flavor.
Contrast that to the Pale Ale malt which has a darker color, more flavor (less sweet more nutty/biscuity) and won't be able to convert as much adjunct as quickly as the two row.
Here's a couple of analysis sheets from Briess:
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_BrewersMalt.pdfhttp://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_PaleAleMalt.pdfBriess Analysis Sheets Available Here:
http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Base.htmWeyermann Analysis Sheets Available Here (download the specs as PDF's):
http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte.asp?idkat=15&umenue=yes&idmenue=&sprache=2