SmallCraftAdvisor.com

Not sure if I can name companies here but what I believe is the biggest Marine chain in the USA is following in Targets footsteps and pulling out of the Canadian market. I am not sure how these guys got to be so large when you look at the lousy decisions they keep making. They came into the Vancouver Island market about 10 years ago with splashy stores and big deals when they first opened. Managed to put most of the small independants out of business within a few years but who wants to support local. I will say they generally have very good staff in our market but that is were the service ended. Their catalogue only showed US prices, all their advertising regarding free shipping to home or store only applied to the the US market and it could take weeks to get product from US warehouses when I can get something from Duckworks in 4-5 days. Don't enter a market if you are not prepared to service it, just sayin. Hopefully a few more independants will open up and perhaps we will remember the experience if another big guy opens and we will stick with the litle guys.

Cheers,

Dan

Maybe its Canada?

lustyslogger wrote:Maybe its Canada?

Nah, that can't be it.
Canadian real estate maybe...
I'm glad the Vancouver store will be open for a couple more years.

cpcanoesailor wrote:

lustyslogger wrote:Maybe its Canada?

Nah, that can't be it.
Canadian real estate maybe...
I'm glad the Vancouver store will be open for a couple more years.

What I read was they will not renew their leases at individual stores and as they expire will close down. All are supposed to be gone by 2018. For many of us there are no small vendors for sailing supplies other than West Marine and the internet. I live about 75 miles from Knoxville and they are IT. I have purchased some items from advertisers to SCA but those have been mostly specialty items. Rigging, lines, instruments, life jackets, etc have all come from West Marine. Are they cheap? Nothing attached to the word "boat" is cheap. In fact the word boat comes from the Latin for "Bring Out Another Thousand". Furthermore, the staff at Knoxville are quite knowledgeable about sailing (at least three out of four are). When I lived in Jacksonville FL my outlet for supplies was Pier 17 Marina but the owner died and the children either didn't want the business or couldn't run it because it was sold and then all but disappeared. Even in a port city of a million plus with a large number of sailors West Marine is about the only source for supplies. I don't know how it is in Canada but if West Marine shut down here a lot of boaters would be in a real quandary.

I would guess that in BC, one or more of the local marine shops will expand to fill the void left by West Marine's departure. In Vancouver, there's a local shop that competes directly with West and is probably more in tune with the local market. Some of the local marinas have good chandlery shops too.

This reminds me that I miss Popeye's Consignment in North Van, a really eclectic marine consignment place that sold by Dutch Auction. I found a lot of gems there amidst the junk, and also consigned some items. It was really fun to go and look around, because you never knew what you'd find. Really volatile fuel for the fires of my imagination...

West has been pulling out of markets where we lived for years and years.
Stores we used to go to in Houston closed, then Oklahoma City. We are down to one in Tulsa and one we used to stop in on way to Dallas but it was more power boat oriented, since they were near a large inland lake.

I am glad of the Tulsa location being open and we often shipped to them for pickup.

Before we switched to small boats from large, despite Houston having more sailboats I think that anywhere else except Florida, there just weren't to many sources and they kept closing.

By the way, I was just in Florida and drove by the Strictly Sail tent for the Miami Boat Show I am assuming. I did not stop but I thought it was probably worth doing so and had Mike been there, I am sure it would!

Love, Jackie Monies- The Red Scamp

Monies wrote:By the way, I was just in Florida and drove by the Strictly Sail tent for the Miami Boat Show I am assuming. I did not stop but I thought it was probably worth doing so and had Mike been there, I am sure it would!

Jackie you drove right by me! was at the show with a Sage 17.

as a Big Box store WM has a strange pricing and stocking structure. high $ and little in-stock.

WM is so cheap to their bottom line (not yours or boat builders) that as a wholesaler/builder i still must request a catalog ... why they don't just send me one is a mystery from a sales perspective.

I actually was called early last year to give feedback to them concerning pricing and stocking. i told them they have no focus on sailors and pricing is out of line.

WM went into many communities over the past 20 years and wiped out the local shops. they then reduced their inventory (most i happen to walk into are focused on 'cheap power boat hardware' and clothing) to be close to worthless for a sailor. maybe the market will respond and 'the little guy' will fill the void ... though with the Internet it is hard to beat (WM has a bad www-site proving they really don't 'get it').

wdscobie wrote:as a Big Box store WM has a strange pricing and stocking structure. high $ and little in-stock.

WM is so cheap to their bottom line (not yours or boat builders) that as a wholesaler/builder i still must request a catalog ... why they don't just send me one is a mystery from a sales perspective.

I actually was called early last year to give feedback to them concerning pricing and stocking. i told them they have no focus on sailors and pricing is out of line.

WM went into many communities over the past 20 years and wiped out the local shops. they then reduced their inventory (most i happen to walk into are focused on 'cheap power boat hardware' and clothing) to be close to worthless for a sailor. maybe the market will respond and 'the little guy' will fill the void ... though with the Internet it is hard to beat (WM has a bad www-site proving they really don't 'get it').

Will have to agree with that. Almost anything I want they have to order anyway so why not just get it on line in the first place?