Pros
You are working in the music industry with other musicians. You are talking about gear all day, whether to customers or to co-workers while you are doing your daily merchandising. You can really develop a close relationship with your customers - after all, you are selling gear, not life insurance. Management can be very flexible when it comes to time off for touring, or family matters. It is a casual environment, and your co-workers are generally friendly and fun. Great discounts got me some awesome gear.
Cons
Slowly all but two holidays have disappeared. Christmas and Thanksgiving are the only paid holidays left. The sales staff gets no sick days. The flavor of the day, aka company focus, changes frequently. You absolutely must be adaptable to these changes, and not take them personally, if you are to have a chance at a GC career. Phone calls to customers who have shopped before and provided a phone number are a big part of your shift. You must also merchandise your department and put gear away, print your own price tags, take endless tests on line using a program that frequently doesn't recognize you. Crazy matrixes are how employee performance is guaged. So much focus is placed on selling additional warranties that have continued to decrease in benefit to the customer- and you will have your commisson percentage decreased if you don't make your quota. Stores run on a skeleton crew. And frequently there are not enough managers , especially for an "approval', which just means you need a manager to complete the sale for you so you can move on to the next customer.