Well, I made it into Guitar Center this weekend. Lots of people and lots of noise. They look like they had quite a bit of selection in the Guitar department but I was really disappointed in the bass and bass amp selection. I'll go back sometime in the middle of a week and look around in a less busy environment.
That's weird. When I was at the Guitar Center in Atlanta (actually, right outside of Atlanta), I don't recall there being any noise except for the salespeople talking to customers and a guy wanking on a Warwick Thumb through a GK amp. Maybe there was loud music, and it just fried my brain so much that I don't remember. I dunno . . .
I do remember that, bass-wise, they only had Fenders (and low-end ones at that), low-end Ibanezes, a couple of ****** Warwicks (can anyone say "ugly stick"?), two Stingrays, a Sterling, and the one truly good bass in the whole store (besides maybe the Sterling): Pedulla Rapture J2-5. That bass alone made entering the GC worthwhile. Unfortunately, they were asking a ridiculous amount of money for it.