West Marine Again

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Safari38LH

Jamestown has good prices too. They often have free shipping weeks - that's when I buy my bottom paint - 40% cheaper than WM.

The man speaks the truth.... This is how I cover my bottom too...

[Gerrycooper56]

WM in Fort Pierce is looking to move as well (there's a sign up at a mall). The current one is next to a Publix and a Chinese restaurant within walking distance of Harbortown Marina.
I think I've contributed to Defenders increase in profit as well, and now only use WM if I need something minor or something needs an urgent repair.

[Horror Hotel]

Defender is great if you live in the northeast. Order before 4pm and get it the next day. That's why I'm sold on defender, most stuff shows up 21 hours later . Northern vermont.

[autumnbreeze27]

Defender must not like Californians... It seems like they usually sit
on my orders a few days before shipping... Vote with your wallet that's the only way to get through

Sent from my TegraNote-P1640 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[savoir]

If you have a little patience you can get some great deals on WM clothing. You have to wait until the summer demand ends and then last summer's clothes are sold off around 1/2 price. At the Newport store this happens in late September after the boat show.

[casual]

Originally Posted by keepondancin

I went to West Marine this afternoon, both Jensen Beach and Stuart. They are both under going some alteration. They are enlarging the clothing department to about 50% of the store. An outspoken employee was on a rant and said they are increasing the clothing because it is the highest profit department in the store. It reenforces my opinion that they are just maximizing the profit for the share holders rather than paying attention to the needs of their customer base. I receive several emails a day about sales, yet none of the merchandise is in the store. I was looking at small blocks or possibly cheek blocks for something on a kayak. They had one of each in inventory, but could order it. Just makes you want to use Amazon even more. Free shipping to your house and no sales tax. Plus, competitive prices. I need to find some privately owned chandleries nearby.

Chapman Marine off Indian st Stuart.

[thinwater]

REI was started by a group of PNW mountaineers, Jim Whitaker among them. The trade mark door handle is an ice ax. Back in the day, they used to sell mountaineering equipment, but now they sell cloths, bikes, and sport climbing toys. The catalog doesn't even carry serious mountaineering gear. Fortunately, there are on-line sources of specialties.

I had a fried that started a store that intended to specialize if real climbing an kayak gear. By and by, they now sell mostly ski parkas and exersize clothing.

That's where the money is, I guess, though all I have ever bought that might be consider clothing is gloves and deck shoes...

... Which brings me to Sperry. A year ago I was in the Sperry store and asked the clerk where the real deck shoes were . He said they all were. I said, "no, the ones for sailors." He said go on line, the mall stores only carry casual shoes.

[captain58sailin]

Someone has to keep all those Malaysian children employed.

[Tx J]

I've been a West Marine customer for many years, along with many other chandlers; and it seems, like others have noted, WM keeps getting more "mass-market" oriented year by year.
Earlier this year they telegraphed (not really using it, by email of course) that something big was changing.
At the end of March (I think) they completely revamped their website, I haven't been able to even find the "Clearance" section, which yielded many good buys . The overall emphasis has changed now. Good/bad, who knows?.
They recently closed the store in San Antonio (and a short-lived one in Rockport), and moved the Corpus one.
It's sad, though I'll continue to be a customer.

Thought that maybe the cause of the perceived (by us) West Marine decline was that "WMAR" had been acquired by one of those vampire venture capital/holding companies that tend to suck otherwise viable concerns dry before jettisoning them (ala Bain Cap) .
But a check on Morningstar shows that Mr. Repass still owns a 22% SO (major ownership), and is still the chairman (he sold a few thousand shares @~$12 late last year, now at ~$15).
A look at the current board of directors tells the retail tale, I think...
(that's my simple analysis, and I used to be pretty good at it)

WMAR West Marine Inc. XNAS:WMAR Stock Quote Price News

[Boatguy30]

They have an ethical market obligation to take more money from Peter the consumer to pay Paul the shareholder. Whilst stashing as much as possible offshore in the process and paying there "associates" the least possible.

I think I've been in a West Marine about 6 times in the last 3 years. My wife used to be a WM manager and I currently own 5 boats......

[Horror Hotel]

The WM website had never been easy to use like the defender site. It's seems clogged with screens after screen of not what your looking for.

[Cuttyhunk]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

Defender must not like Californians... It seems like they usually sit
on my orders a few days before shipping... Vote with your wallet that's the only way to get through

Sent from my TegraNote-P1640 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

I used to work there, and believe me, they ship everything out ASAP. With the exception of a few days around the annual warehouse sale, if you get your order in by 4:30 pm Eastern time M-F and it's one of the 50,000 items in the warehouse, it will go out that evening. I would come in in the morning and the loading dock was always empty. They are not fancy, no marketing gurus like at West. Same goes for Jamestown. They just rearranged their store to upgrade it to be closer to what Defender has (smile). No bells and whistles. Jamestown is still doing a lot of business with actual boatbuilders. They have added more electronics and seem to be trying to do more of that recently.

Unfortunately, I live an hour from Defender in one direction, and an hour from Jamestown in another direction. Just a little too far even with discounts. There is a West store close by, but I would have a hard time working there after Defender.

[Sailor_Hutch]

It's getting harder for brick and mortar to compete against mail order/internet. Another thing that's putting price pressure on West Marine is the expansion of Bass Pro, which is *really* catering to the sport fishing crowd.

A new Bass Pro just opened in our town, and it absolutely dwarfs our little West Marine store. About half the Bass Pro floorspace is clothing, so they're putting price pressure on the specialty, style, and traditional marine clothing areas as well.

[David M]

I got frustrated this week when they only had one in stock of the items I needed. I needed three wiper blades and five life jacket strobes. They only had one of each. Who buys only one wiper blade?

They also don't stay on top of their stainless steel fastener inventory. Too often I will find an empty bin of the fastener I need. The same bin can remain empty for weeks, I have seen it over and over again.

The bean counters can only stop stocking so much before people like me stop going there and start ordering over the internet.

[Horror Hotel]

You seem shocked that going to WM was a bad experience.