Some heated words have been exchanged here and some valid points have been raised. I agree that many of us were that kid once, but there does come a point where the absurdity hits appalling levels, i.e. being asked how to put on a guitar strap...when the strap is already on the guitar. Yes, that's right, I've actually had to physically lift a guitar over a customer's head and put it on him. Not even a kid, BTW. Approximate age was 24. When you have to basically do the musicians equivalent of dressing someone for them, it can jade you a bit. That being said, praise Allah that I work in the recording department because guitars is a notorious shit show.
Samurai; I agree, the guy was venting and nothing he said was horribly offensive, like say, calling for the genocide of all puppies and kittens. Just a GC employee who's getting it from both sides letting off some steam. As for music store employees trying to "screw" musicians, I almost wish it were so black-and-white simple as "being screwed" or "not being screwed". As another poster pointed out, Some companies and sometimes their distributors heavily frown upon us giving discounts to customers. It can cause us to lose dealership, they can punish us by upping our individual company costs for product or my personal favorite, they can "forget" to ship our stuff making it amazingly late and causing our customers to hate us. Furthermore, (though I'm not sure GC is) music sales staff who operate on a salary plus commision basis don't want to give discounts because when a customer says something as seemingly harmless as "hey dude, can you give me a better price on this/can I get a discount/can I get a deal?" to the salesman this roughly translates to "can I have some money directly out of you pocket so you can't afford that new amp for yourself / you can't make rent unless you eat Kraft Dinner and Ramen noodles for 30-45 meals a month". Regardless of the actual product being sold, 75% of all commisioned sales staff aren't making tons of money, so asking for a discount right out the gate is pretty innappropriate. And regardless of whether or not the staff is commissioned the truth is on 80% of all the product stocked, we make just enough margin to pay the employees and keep the lights on and water running.
The "unless you can do it better" comment; I like it! Very true! You see a lot of people heralding the age of incompetence of others, but pretty much 100% of the time see them clam up after walking a mile in their shoes. Of course, there are some people who are in the position where they've become so bitter, that it's apparent they shouldn't be doing that job, but that could be said for so many careers.
Finally, I think the best point raised was the free choice argument. For example, I don't like Behringer products really; solution: I don't buy them and I don't even waste my time looking at them. So if you don't like Guitar Center, don't shop there. If you even hate the mom & pop shop down the steet from GC, don't shop there either. Maybe you hate computers and buying online, so why the hell would you buy from Sweetwater? Moral of the story: stick with what works for you.
