Rain
And that being said, my biggest reason to avoid music stores unless absolutely necessary is the customers, not the clerks.
 
I don't know how anyone can put up with that noise 8 hours a day.
 

How do these kids manage to dial in such godawfully brittle tones to practice their harmonic minor scales with?

What, you don't like my mash-up of Stairway to Heaven and Crazy Train done using an untuned $99 guitar through a Dual-Recto stack with the tone sliders made into a full smiley? 

The weirdest thing is that I hate testing stuff over there. I'll usually play as quiet as possible, and as little as possible, even when I intend to buy something.
 
And there'll be this 50 year old guy who'd make Iggy Pop look like a business man walking up and plugging into an amp amp playing a riff with no sense of timing or melody.
 
And it just makes me sad, you know. So sad I want to die on the spot, out of empathy for them...

I can imagine getting home after a day working in GC and just not wanting to look at a guitar all night. 
 
The absolute worst is when you're listening to someone play a riff or chord progression which you know, but they keep getting this one note or chord wrong and you just want to go over and set them straight but there's just no way of doing that without looking like a jerk. 
 
This isn't in GC but I regularly see these two teenage kids busking in the Columbus Circle subway. It's a sax player and a keyboard player and they only have one song - Careless Whisper by George Michael. The sax player blows his way clumsily through that famous sax riff and then botches one note of the last phrase...it's just a run up the D natural minor scale from A, but he plays Eb instead of E every time and it drives me nuts...

Rain
And there'll be this 50 year old guy who'd make Iggy Pop look like a business man walking up and plugging into an amp amp playing a riff with no sense of timing or melody.

 
Ok, ok...  I'll stay out... 
 

In my newsfeed this morning. The new Times Square GC... 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIgiYvis3OY
 
 

Rain
In my newsfeed this morning. The new Times Square GC... 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIgiYvis3OY
 

 
I probably shouldn't joke about this, but how hasn't there been one of those mass workplace shootings there yet? I cannot imagine a more psychosis-inducing environment. The one on 14th St isn't nearly so bad. I wonder if most of those people are Times Square tourists who see in this store a great opportunity to showcase their chops in New York, under the delusion that someone's going to "discover" them and pluck them from their small town in Indiana. 
 

OMG.  Headphones anyone??  As much as I love to look and talk about gear, I couldn't work there.
 
I have a buddy that used to work at MARS and I don't know how he survived for so many years.

While reading this thread, I couldn't help but think of the exact opposite experience we just had while on vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN. I have always wanted a mountain dulcimer, and my wife promised to buy me one when I graduated from school (last semester coming up - and glad it'll be over). Anyway, while looking through the tourism books saw a small ad for 10% off accessories at a music shop called "Wood-N-Strings" in Townsend, TN (about 30 minutes from the campground we were staying at). So we decided to take a ride over. What a lovely little music shop. It is run by Mike Clemmer and his wife, Connie. Mike does his own custom made dulcimers as well as selling other brands. What a wonderful experience it was. His wife waited on us, while Mike was helping another lady with a hammered dulcimer. Both were very knowledgeable, and just good folk to be around. In the end, we purchased that dulcimer (so now I have to finish school), as well as some other stuff. Sure we spent some money, but it was well worth it. When I look at upgrading, you can bet I'll be taking a ride down to see Mike and Connie again!
 
Oh, here is the link to his shop - http://www.clemmerdulcimer.com/