Brunswick selling off Sea Ray brand

There are some legal reasons for a MSRP (retail price) especially when there is a third party distribution model (price fixing and collusion are some of the reasons). However, they are complicated/subjective and not the only driving factor. With many large ticket items, culturally people feel the need to negotiate. The US is actually conservative in this arena though. Cars, boats, large furniture purchases, etc. are priced at retail then people negotiate the deal they can tolerate (seller and buyer). In the Asia Pacific region, the expected discount is much higher and therefore the "list" price is also inflated even higher. In many world areas, just about everything is negotiated - cab fare, meat at the grocery store, clothing on the shelf....
 
We have a Tyson's Foods plant here. They imported a bus load of Somolians because of a shortage of local labor who didn't want to process chickens.

I got caught in line at Walmart behind a Somoli woman who was attempting to negotiate the price of a package of toilet paper. Her husband was the decision maker and she had to run to him to with every response from the cashier who obviously had no authority to do anyting but swipe a bar code and take money.

Another 10 minutes lost that I'll never see again. I guess they are wondering who left a buggie with 8 gal of Rotella T 15W40 in the check out line.
 
Business questions for those of you with business smarts (especially you 37 year old ceo type and millenials with two cars and two houses and such; by the way I just told my 33 year old son to go find a ceo job and he will be all set. He's hopping right on that. Now if just the other 330 million people in this country will get off their butts and do the same) - What is the purpose of Sea Ray's over inflated listed retail price only to settle on a deal for significantly less price? What does that methodology buy you?

Don’t qualify in the smarts or millennial departments but I have often wondered this myself. It’s not just Sea Ray but the entire boat building industry. There would be a tax advantage by writing off unsold inventory at the risk of higher losses and the company being sold-whoops. Maybe you get a dozen or so people who don’t know the boat buying process and actually pay that price. Or it could be that you offer 22% off while Cobalt only offers 20% off. Doesn’t matter about the price of the boat, you are giving a better deal.

Just speculation, but those are the ones that come to the top of my bald head.
 
Back on topic here. These number speak for themselves:

"I took a look at Brunswick's annual report to stockholders and investors. They only broke down sales by group- they now operate in 3 main groups: engines, boats. and fitness. All together they had $4.4 billion in sales last year. Engines were the largest division with slightly more than half of total sales. followed by boats and then fitness.

What is interesting is that of the 3 groups, boats are by far the smallest contributor to profits. Engines had a 15.5% profit margin, fitness had a 12% profit margin, and boats only had a 4.4% profit margin. That is a thin margin that would quickly turn to a loss in the next recession. They didn't break it out, but I would guess that SeaRay likely was a money loser for them or they wouldn't be trying to sell it. "

In 2016 Sear Ray sold only 2500 boats. Not sure where the 2017 numbers will total up to.
 
The cruiser market has definitely fallen off, at least on LKN. I am out on the lake about every weekend through the summer and for every 10 boats I see maybe 2 are cruisers, sedan bridge etc and the rest are some sort of day boat. Been boating on LKN since 2000 and 15yrs ago it was the opposite. I don't even look at new cruisers these days, so can't speak much about cost, I have been looking at 25' range bowriders - (SeaRay SLX, Sundecks and Cobalts) - new some of these boats exceed $100k - the used ones I am looking at are in the $30-$50k range. That's a lot of money for a toy, at least to me. Sure there are plenty of people that can afford or will figure a way to spend $100k for a bowrider or $500k, $1m or more for a cruiser or sedan bridge, but I personally don't think that market is sustainable for a production boat company - maybe I am wrong.

I do hope things work out, I have owned more SeaRays than any other boat, love the brand and would hat to see it go away.

Bill,

This is exactly what I see at PYC. 5 years ago my dock was 90% cruisers and sailboats. Each year since the cruisers have been sold and replaced by deck boats. I moved my slip last year because I became surrounded on both sides by deck boats on lifts and it felt like I was in a canyon. Every time a cruiser moves out now it's replaced by a deck boat. There is little overnight partying now. Amazing how quickly it changed.
 
Business questions for those of you with business smarts (especially you 37 year old ceo type and millenials with two cars and two houses and such; by the way I just told my 33 year old son to go find a ceo job and he will be all set. He's hopping right on that. Now if just the other 330 million people in this country will get off their butts and do the same) - What is the purpose of Sea Ray's over inflated listed retail price only to settle on a deal for significantly less price? What does that methodology buy you?

Like PlayDate said, I think a lot of it has to do with Perception Management. SeaRay isn't even as bad as others like Formula. I filled out the order sheet and got a sticker price north of $100K for a 24' bowride - absolutely nuts. But then the sales guy comes back and says I can get it for $70K. These types of shenanigans really annoy me, I'd much rather buy something knowing that the price is nearly fixed, maybe +/-5% based on how well you can negotiate, then walk away with no real barometer on how well you did with the transaction.
 
Good for you. You are statistically an outlier. Data says MOST people do not have your luck. Data says the middle class is in decline. Data says wages are not keeping up with cost of housing, education, and healthcare. Data says I am right, and you're denial is incorrect.
Sorry, not in the mood for whiners who think that paying burger flippers fifteen bucks an hour will solve income inequality.
 
what's a hashtag?......:cool:.......
 
Good for you. You are statistically an outlier. Data says MOST people do not have your luck. Data says the middle class is in decline. Data says wages are not keeping up with cost of housing, education, and healthcare. Data says I am right, and you're denial is incorrect.

You are exactly right. The flawed assumption of the wealthy is if they can make a lot of money then EVERYONE else should be able to do the same. The economic truth is there simply are not enough high paying jobs to go around for everyone and never will be. Then they revert to just pure arrogance and label those who can't earn as much as "whiners." Trust me, someday they will pay dearly for their love of money.
 
what's a hashtag?......:cool:.......
#IDon'tKnow
But I think I am going to start a GoFundMe for my new boat, cause my college education didn't work!

Man this one has gone off the rails -- I thought we were talking about SeaRay getting sold and the number of pontoon boats vs cruisers. I want to go back to summer on the boat where the only conversation is about our boats, the weather and the condition of the beer cooler. Mixing work and political talk with boating is just bad, Bad, BAD!
 
This Troll,(ADDvanced) with ADD, is ruining this thread. Such a shame it is allowed in this General Discussion area.o_O
 
Anyone pushing for a higher minimum wage just doesn't understand basic economics. Please go spout your nonsense somewhere else.
 
It will help. Minimum wage USED TO BE HIGHER. When you were young, minimum wage paid more. Which meant positions above minimum wage paid more.

MinWageWorth4.png

If minimum wage was higher, you would get paid more. I would get paid more. Everyone would get paid more except for the CEOs, they might make only 200x your salary instead of 354x. Companies can afford to pay everyone more, but they choose to pay us less.

WHO-EARNS-WHAT-Business-7.jpeg

ceo-compensation-ratio-2016.png


all you have accomplished by collecting, comprehending, and believing this 'data' is making yourself believe you have no chance of becoming successful enough to enjoy certain luxuries in life like the members of this forum enjoy.....congratulations....you have now made your potential road to success many times more difficult than it needs to be because now your mind and heart are not in the fight....
 
This Troll,(ADDvanced) with ADD, is ruining this thread. Such a shame it is allowed in this General Discussion area.o_O

Yep. I reported him and suggest everyone else do the same. He's got nothing to add here to the topic at hand.
 
We have a Tyson's Foods plant here. They imported a bus load of Somolians because of a shortage of local labor who didn't want to process chickens.

I got caught in line at Walmart behind a Somoli woman who was attempting to negotiate the price of a package of toilet paper. Her husband was the decision maker and she had to run to him to with every response from the cashier who obviously had no authority to do anyting but swipe a bar code and take money.

Another 10 minutes lost that I'll never see again. I guess they are wondering who left a buggie with 8 gal of Rotella T 15W40 in the check out line.
And yet we have a record number of Americans on welfare.
 
You are exactly right. The flawed assumption of the wealthy is if they can make a lot of money then EVERYONE else should be able to do the same. The economic truth is there simply are not enough high paying jobs to go around for everyone and never will be. Then they revert to just pure arrogance and label those who can't earn as much as "whiners." Trust me, someday they will pay dearly for their love of money.

I'm not 'wealthy' by any stretch of the imagination. The economic truth that I think you are looking for is that there shouldn't be 'high paying jobs' for everyone. If there were, who would clean toilets? Dig Ditches? Etc?. But, for those of us in the millenial age group - if you chose to pursue an education in something meaningful there are lots of opportunities out there. I work with hundreds of people my age that did the same thing. Looking around my social media peers, those of us with STEM educations, or those who chose to pursue skilled trades, are all doing pretty well for ourselves. Not to point to too much of a stereotype, but those who went and spent big bucks on an arts education? All but one of them is clamoring for taxing the rich. The other one figured it out and is in law school now.

What I don't understand, and what trolls like cantADD haven't articulated, is how taxing the 'evil rich' makes things better for everyone - what then? Maybe if they fix the CEOs pay and gave him absolutely nothing, everyone else at the company gets a thousand bucks extra a year? What's that fix?
 
I think a picture of my boat should be on the front cover of the new SeaRay Living magazine.
0E38FD43-9A70-42E9-AB79-E30EBE35C7C1.jpeg
 

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