First guitar I ever bought...an epiphone dot deluxe, I had to carry it out of there as is...came with nothing!!
Second was an epiphone les paul standard, had to buy a cheap gig bag to take it home in...
ended up buying epiphone cases for these as the skb's at the time didnt fit the epi headstock
since then, I always buy a hardshell with my guitars...the skb's finally fit the epiphone headstocks, and tkl worked with my ibanez artcore
afaic guitars should come with hardshells...not saying a flight case, but something that will survive the ride home LOL
I bet guitar center keeps all the extras that come with and sells them seperately...wouldnt surprise me a bit