So I grabbed the remote and fiddled with the picture size button, and sure enough they had set it to zoom to fill the screen, which of course removed a lot of content....
I was actually there to get a Y cable for my subs, only to be told that it shouldn't be done and that I should spend $80 for a monster (there I go swearing again) sub cable that came with one included. I promptly left the store.
It is amazing that a company the size of Best Buy with as many retail locations can produce such consistent results. Pick a store, any store, and you are 99% likely to get the same experience. For some reason though, we all go back to test the theory quite often.