Well, coming from a smaller city that only has one local music store, World of Music, which can jack up prices as they want since they don't have any competitors, I often take drives out to Cleveland for Guitar Center, especially since they have two. I usually go to the one in Mayfield Heights and because of the store I was able to really find my sound. The website is very well developed and I especially like their used items section. I find that their willingness to ship the item from one Guitar Center to another is great. I'm not sure how the process is actually because I've never needed to do that. If I was someone, instead of actually using the site to buy and ship stuff directly to your house, I'd save up some money and go down to the closest shop. The experience inside the store itself has so much more power. The only negative thing I've experience with Guitar Center were the reps. I know they're doing their job by trying to sell and make money but I often find their strategy tiredsome. Also I had a guy flat out lie to me about what would the best way of financing would be... which the way he suggested would have given me the amp sooner but would have paid Guitar Center an extra grand.