Boater's World no more

Matt Gurnsey · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:44 pm Post subject: Boater's World no more

I don't know if this has been discussed before- I haven't seen it.

Ritz Camera, which owns Boater's World, has declared Bankruptcy, and in a hearing Yesterday the assets of Boater's World were sold to a liquidation company.

Expect Circuit City like closing sales. There may be some good buys here, but expect the "30% off" to be off of suggested retail prices, not actual previous selling prices.

For the lst number of years, BW has been at the Boat Shows selling product at or below cost to generate sales. Yeah, they sold a fair amount of stuff, but they didn't make enough profit to pay the show space off, let alone the staff working the booth.

Somebody once said that West Marine should be happy to make 2% in this market. Well, we now see what happens when a company doen't make a profit. 129 stores closing, and hundreds of people unemployed.

In similar news, Bladen Composits, formerly Palmer Marine, builders of Shamrock, Defiance, Albin and Tiderunner, has closed their doors after a month or more of not building any boats. Just the latest in the casualties of the current economy, aggravated by the inability of dealers to get credit lines to have boats in stock.

In good news- Spring has arrived, so boating season can't be far off- can it?!? Neutral

Capital Sea · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: Boater's World no more

Matt Gurnsey · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:51 pm Post subject:

I wasn't saying anyone caused the failure of Boater's World, other than Boater's World themselves. By selling at or below cost too often, they were not profitable, and so failed as a company.

No amount of government regulation or changes to financial institutions would change that.

And price matching at 2%, or 5% becomes a dangerous practice, because of the smallness of the boating community. Once word gets out, then many boaters will want below market prices.

Short term, this may be good for boaters. Long term it is bad for the boating industry- where will boaters go to see actual product, and get items from an in stock source? Buying online is great, but there is a downside.

Just remember three things-

Best Price

Best Service

Best Quality

You can not have all three. Which one do you want to give up when you buy?

Pat Anderson · Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject:

The Ritz Camera bankruptcy was discussed here, with some speculation about what it meant for Boaters World...so guess not really a surprise, almost inevitable.