West Marine SOLD....Time to Rejoice - Hopefully

West Marine is the morning after pill of the supply chain. You hope to never need them. And with proper planning and foresight, you should be able to avoid them. But every once in a while you find yourself in a pickle, and it’s nice to know they’re available.
 
Z-Worthy said:
West Marine is the morning after pill of the supply chain. You hope to never need them. And with proper planning and foresight, you should be able to avoid them. But every once in a while you find yourself in a pickle, and it’s nice to know they’re available.
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Great analogy ..... says my $75 3M wool polishing pad I had to pay for at west marine, when mine blew out of the box and into a mud puddle walking into storage.
 
I agree, their stock issue is a major problem. They are wasting valuable store real estate with all those empty shelves. And even at the same price, I'll try to order online instead of wait to buy from them due to the likelyhood they wont have it in stock. And it doesn't seem that difficult to correct. But it's been clear they need some renewed energy from new management.
 
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Never had a problem at West Marine always a good experience the people know what they’re talking about, prices were always good and they always matched anything I found online Amazon or defender.

I look forward when I shop there and the wife enjoys going too win-win all around.

recently found out there was a recall on my west marine binoculars that I bought almost 20 years ago they said bring them on down and will swap them out with the latest model over $400 How can you beat that.
 
Blueone said:
Great analogy ..... says my $75 3M wool polishing pad I had to pay for at west marine, when mine blew out of the box and into a mud puddle walking into storage.
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Bet they sell those at Wal Mart
 
M Prod said:
Bet they sell those at Wal Mart
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We are in a really active boating and camping area and Walmart has a fairly extensive boating and camping selection of stuff.... compared to the Walmart near me in Indy where it’s virtually non existent.. and no they don’t have 3M yellow wool polishing pads... as it was West Marine only had one.... so I was lucky to be able to pay their rent that month
 
West marine is like the busted chick in the bar at 1:59. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Then when ya think back your mad at yourself. Everytime i have to go into a WM to get something in a pinch i get pissed for not planning better. Yeah i dont mind paying $8 for a SS screw but with the ugly chick i atleast got a smile
 
Jeff Delbuono said:
West marine is like the busted chick in the bar at 1:59. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Then when ya think back your mad at yourself. Everytime i have to go into a WM to get something in a pinch i get pissed for not planning better. Yeah i dont mind paying $8 for a SS screw but with the ugly chick i atleast got a smile
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Look on the bright side .... using your bar pickup analogy, $8 is cheap for a screw :eek:
 
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A buy out by a group of venture capitalists is all about making money for the partners. Don't expect to see prices moderate. Typically, the formula is too milk as much profit out of acquisitions as possible and when that option is exhausted, they sell the assets and move on to another financial opportunity.
I agree with those who said their store is not too bad. Ours is well stocked but a bit pricey. I did not mind paying a little extra for the convenience of a near by store that had what I needed with convenient parking and a clean store. Our local marinas are not bashful when it comes to setting their prices. So, not that different from WM.
 
Here in jersey west marine is a joke. I went to the parts counter and asked if they have a riser set for a mercruiser 5.0. Girl looks at me and says whats that. Im like uuummm its right next to the finagin pin and connected to the clevis clove. She starts typing fearlessly on the keyboard as i just chuckel and walk out shaking my head. They are not a marine parts store but more of a marine trinkets store. No better place to go get a lighted cup holder or life vest
 
We try to plan items in advance. When we can not WM is there. It is nice to see the part before you purchase. On line parts are great if you have the part number and get an exact replacement. Example is nylon roller on the anchor there is no part number but WM has a good selection and if they do not have one they will order and if not correct you do not pay.
 
The prices at our local West Marine are high for most things. For some things like fenders, however, the online shipping is so high that the local West Marine is actually cheaper. You just need to know the comparative prices.

The help is not that knowledgeable but cute and friendly. I'm ok with that, since I typically know what I want before I walk in the store.
 
Blueone said:
We are in a really active boating and camping area and Walmart has a fairly extensive boating and camping selection of stuff.... compared to the Walmart near me in Indy where it’s virtually non existent.. and no they don’t have 3M yellow wool polishing pads... as it was West Marine only had one.... so I was lucky to be able to pay their rent that month
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$75 is insane for a wool polishing pad. The 3M’s are $30 on Amazon. You sure did pay their rent.
 
  • Their inventory/stocking is weird. The one I shop at in Minnetonka services basically Lake Minnetonka and surrounding inland lake boaters, but it feels like the inventory/merchandising choices are from some boilerplate "boating" template which includes stuff which is unlikely to be used in inland lake boating. The net result is not enough shelf space for high demand items for our boating environment and things are often out of stock.
  • The staff is a mixed bag. Some seem to not know much about boating, some do, but that's often irrelevant to how helpful they are. Some seem to know a lot, but have a poor customer service mindset, while some of the people who don't know much are great help anyway.
  • It's hard to get enthusiastic about any private equity takeover. Strip equity and overhead in the name of "efficiency" and then dump a crippled company later. My hopeful thought is that the pandemic-driven boating surge is seen as having long legs and they figure that it can be run better for everyone (management and consumers) and be a growth opportunity.
  • I generally try to avoid WM in favor of other mail order options, but there are times where WM is the only viable retail option for items that are too niche boating to be sold elsewhere around here. It's not an awful place to shop, really, it just seems much more expensive than it "should" be and often out of in-demand items.
 
Mark.60 said:
We should take up a collection to buy Blue a new pad.
His is soggy from crying about the price
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To make matter worse... it was 3M’s new quick release.... it was double sided and it looked like it had threads....when I got back to the boat I realized it...damn ....next day went back to WM....and they didn’t sell the adapter.... so couldn’t use the pad and ordered the quick release on line for $35.... so I have $110 into this shit show..... just in case you set the limit on the “go fund me” too low :)
 
mobocracy said:
  • Their inventory/stocking is weird. The one I shop at in Minnetonka services basically Lake Minnetonka and surrounding inland lake boaters, but it feels like the inventory/merchandising choices are from some boilerplate "boating" template which includes stuff which is unlikely to be used in inland lake boating. The net result is not enough shelf space for high demand items for our boating environment and things are often out of stock.
  • The staff is a mixed bag. Some seem to not know much about boating, some do, but that's often irrelevant to how helpful they are. Some seem to know a lot, but have a poor customer service mindset, while some of the people who don't know much are great help anyway.
  • It's hard to get enthusiastic about any private equity takeover. Strip equity and overhead in the name of "efficiency" and then dump a crippled company later. My hopeful thought is that the pandemic-driven boating surge is seen as having long legs and they figure that it can be run better for everyone (management and consumers) and be a growth opportunity.
  • I generally try to avoid WM in favor of other mail order options, but there are times where WM is the only viable retail option for items that are too niche boating to be sold elsewhere around here. It's not an awful place to shop, really, it just seems much more expensive than it "should" be and often out of in-demand items.
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I completely agree about Minnetonka. Especially in regards to the inventory they stock. I can’t even get a proper bulb there.
 
Blueone said:
To make matter worse... it was 3M’s new quick release.... it was double sided and it looked like it had threads....when I got back to the boat I realized it...damn ....next day went back to WM....and they didn’t sell the adapter.... so couldn’t use the pad and ordered the quick release on line for $35.... so I have $110 into this shit show..... just in case you set the limit on the “go fund me” too low :)
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I had to chuckle after your earlier post on how your new pad lost half it’s wool the first time you used it. As long as we can laugh at how much we spend, life must be good.
 
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