Stores like Guitar Center and Sweetwater have very relaxed return policies. Return for any reason within 45 days. I always assumed that they resold it as an 'open box' item and took a loss, but I've been wondering if perhaps the manufacturer takes the item back or gives the retailer a kickback. Maybe they sell the product to some other retailer and get a kickback from the manufacturer?

All depends.

High value stuff probably goes back to supplier or is offered at discount to the retailer.

In the good old day we had "one to show, one to go" , one unit would be used for demos etc. and one new in box for sale.

Sadly the internet has made everyone buy stuff, play with it for a bit, and then return it. This is really tough on small operations who cannot afford to have thousands of £ of stuff floating about unpaid for.

As a consumer it must be a plus. Try before you buy. And no one is worried about annoying GC, Sweetwater, Thomann etc. You should be worried about annoying the people in your local mom and pop store 'cause it aint gonna be there much longer sadly.

They also have a generous return policy at my local guitar store. you but buy gear or guitar, and it you dont like it, return it full refund within 2 weeks. my guess is, a lot of stuff is not new new. Its been returned and cleaned up.

Shouldn't that be illegal? Shouldn't they disclose such a practice?

They would have to sell it as an 'open box' item (for less), otherwise customers will get upset. Some things cannot be cleaned up. For example, once a power adapter cable is unraveled, you can never wrap it back up like they do at the factory. You can also tell if a box has been re-taped up.

I mean even if they can perfectly clean it up and seal it as if it's coming straight from the factory, isn't it still obligatory to inform the customer that someone else opened the box first, which means they touched/used the product (and only God knows where those hands had been before). This is gross honestly. And that's just the hygiene side of it. What if they drop it without any mark, and it still works perfectly. But it was dropped once.

In my opinion there should be no situation where these online stores don't inform the second customer that the product they're about to purchase was purchased by someone else first, even if it's in perfect shape.

PMT in the uk are similar, they are criminals who lie about the condition of guitars, then charge you more than the online prices if you dare to go into a physical shop, if you are crazy enough to go into one you will be treated very poorly as well.