Westmarine is insane

[SVNeko]

Originally Posted by Stumble

What irritates me about these WM threads is people seem to think that they just jack the prices up for fun, or because they can.

Of course they will raise their prices as high as they can. They are not running a charity. And putting competitors out of business has helped them do it.

[DotDun]

FWIW, their sale price on New England rope is good thru today....you'd be hard pressed to beat the price elsewhere.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by SVNeko

Of course they will raise their prices as high as they can. They are not running a charity. And putting competitors out of business has helped them do it.

Of course, but it isn't like WM is printing money, they have a pretty poor profit margin compared to most retail. And unlikely most retail, labor isn't their biggest cost, it's inventory.

A grocery store (which is notoriously fast) will typically have an Inventory Turnover Rate of about 18, meaning on average they sell everything's in the store 18 times a year. Most retail is between 6-8, WestMarine is ~.6 . So the average item in WM sells about once every two years. That's actually slower than a high end jewelry store like Tiffany's.

[LLizzard]

"That's the trouble with economics 101. It has no consideration for people."
Ha, good one!

[Hudson Force]

I follow that same Sam Cooke plan that so many have mentioned, "You Better Shop Around", but I keep West Marine on my list. Sometimes they suit me best. No store has my devotion and no store makes me resentful.

[nematon785]

"Local Charts? no, we don't have those... We do have a great selection of Multi Function Display's with radar, fishfinder, compass wind, distance, engine management, weather and chartplotter included, of course you will want the platinum chart chip package..."

WM is fun to visit. We call it the candy store around here.