As much as I am not a fan of GC, I still shop there out of convenience, and I don't think they are a monopoly simply because being the biggest game in town (by far) doesn't mean they are the only game. I do live outside a major metropolitan area that has so many GCs, that when one says, "I was at GC," the question that follows is, "Which one?" MarkO, Luke, and DougR6 probably go to a different one than me, and I go to a different one than my bandmates. But there are other music stores between here and there that are brand name dealers. BTW, it's one of the big 2 manufacturers (Fender or Gibson) that requires their dealers to carry the entire inventory of that make, and pay for the inventory at cost in cash, not on consignment like is usually the case. In this case, it would seem only a big store chain could be a dealer. And with Mesa, their stuff isn't available at a discount....anywhere. MSRP is the price you pay, which makes the dealer's profit, not cost, smaller. A Mesa dealership doesn't not enjoy the fruits of the ridiculous markup, so it costs them more to carry Mesa stuff. As Mully can tell you, regardless of what they (Mesa) have in their catalog, it is left up to the distributor to carry it and you can not get stuff from another dealer if there is one close to you. That being said, I've only seen 2 places that do Mesa by mail order.