Would you buy a car without test driving it?
I've spent hours at the store handling a half dozen instruments I was somewhat interested in buying and found that none of them were to my liking. And then I found one that wasn't even in my radar that felt right that I bought.
The other thing too is that even chains like Guitar Center have techs handy that can fine tune the guitar for you. For a retail job it's pretty sweet that they can spend a lot of downtime just playing and call it work.
I've spent hours at the store handling a half dozen instruments I was somewhat interested in buying and found that none of them were to my liking. And then I found one that wasn't even in my radar that felt right that I bought.
The other thing too is that even chains like Guitar Center have techs handy that can fine tune the guitar for you. For a retail job it's pretty sweet that they can spend a lot of downtime just playing and call it work.