This has always been my favorite music shop- not guitar center necessarily, but this particular GC in Kirkland, WA. Since the new year the place has gone downhill, to say the least. The store is always a disarray, the old familiar faces that kept me coming back are disappearing and being replaced by a bunch of moronic kids (some of whom are teenagers that lack even the most basic knowledge of guitar and audio equipment) who mostly just try to get me to purchase whatever it is I'm standing in front of. I've started shopping at Best Buy's music department because they get me the same prices and they aren't pushy. They know less than the new idiots at Guitar Center Kirkland, but at least they give me what I want, and at a low price, so I can get out of there quickly. What happened to REAL music stores? I don't know if GC's changed management or what, but that place is not the same.