It is corporate thinking short-sightedness. It means that only the very large music store chains have any leverage in dealing with the likes of Gibson, which then means that it's only the large chains that end up stocking Gibson - and we all know what the general level of service is from large chains. Even in the US it's just as bad. Our keyboard player recently worked in Boston (on a software contract) and got to know some other musicians in his office. There were two large chain stores in Boston that sold Gibsons, but if they didn't want the pushy sales staff that going there entailed, they had to go to New York, over 200 miles away, to find an independent dealer.