Now, to their credit, I have never seen an actual shop that stocked the entire lines of Zvex, T-Rex and Pigtronix pedals. I have also never seen a shop that stocked WEM amps before, so in terms of their merch, I was quite impressed.
HOWEVER.
I have never been to a guitar shop where the staff completely ignored me when I walked in, in spite of me and my two friends being the only prospective customers in the building.
I have also never been to a guitar shop where (I learned upon prompting one of the members of staff) you *can't* go and try stuff out. All guitars, amps, pedals etc are on shelves, in cases, on racks/ hangers and so on, and actually remain there until they've been bought.
Nor have I been to a guitar shop where you couldn't even get near the merchandise, because the entrance to the store was enclosed by the counter, and near enough the entire shop space actually makes up a "display area" not accessible to customers.
WHAT THE FRESH HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!
If I go to a guitar shop, I'll want to try stuff out before I buy it. In fact, chances are I won't even know exactly what I want unless I do. If you don't let me try stuff out, I'm not going to buy anything from you. It's a pretty simple and time-tested format that all other guitar shops are perfectly happy to stick to, because it makes them money. My impression about this place is, it's for rich yuppy arseholes who can simply walk in and throw money at stuff they either don't need or wouldn't be able to tell how good it was if they tried it out anyway.
I fear this may be a sign of things to come in terms of the future of gear retail.
