[Lorilee]

I own only 3 guitars, none of them more expensive than $1000. I love my guitars, and I am picky about how I take care of them. None of them have a dent, scratch or any damage from me. I probably treat them more gently than I need to, but hey, they are really important to me. I do have a mild case of GAS, and I like to go into guitars stores when we travel to look at and occasionally touch/strum some lovely guitars. I plan for the future, when my playing has advanced to the point that I am deserving of one of these beautiful instruments. Anyway, we are currently snowbirding in Arizona, and I visited a Guitar Center about 40 or so mile from where we are staying. As always, I rushed past everything else to the acoustic room. There were only a few people in there, so I was happy. One of them was a 40ish man with a little girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old. The man was encouraging the little girl to "try" any of the guitars within her reach. She would grab a guitar off the wall, take it over to a stool and climb up there, smacking the guitar against the stool. She's sit there for a few seconds, making random sounds with the guitar. Then she'd climb down, thumping the guitar again, and take it back to the wall, bumping it into the wall and the guitars around it. This happened at least 3 or 4 times. I cringed every time a I heard another guitar thump. And her dad? He said and did nothing. Amazingly, there was an employee seemingly stationed in there. He also said nothing to the adult parent, but as I was talking to him he actually flinched at the sounds of impact. Finally they left, and I could look around a little more intently. I saw scratches, gouges, and other various types of damage on so many of those instruments. Sure, they were the ones on the lowest rows and the least expensive of the lot, but how does that matter? It's the result of disrespectful, entitled, and uncaring behavior. Disgusting. I HATE that GC is locking up their nicest guitars, but I can't fault them for it. Not after what I saw.