"Harry.Krause" wrote in message
...
The real ME wrote:
Harry Krause wrote:


I sold off nearly $3,000,000 in new motors and boats, depressing
the new boat
industry in southern Connecticut for an entire season. Everything
was sold...every cotter pin, every quart of oil, 30 days after I
started.
For near full-retail, too.


Harry,
I am curious, how did you depress the market if you were selling for
full-retail?

Why are you curious? Are you planning to transport yourself back to 1974
in New Haven County and go into the retail boating business?

I'll indulge you.

I didn't sell for full-retail, as my father had. I sold for *near* full
retail, which, in those days, for the lines my dad sold, was unheard of
in the pre-season. Remember, this was in the days where a franchise meant
something, and among the "something" was a protected territory, meaning
there were no competitors selling the same brand name within a certain
area. "You want a Cruisers, Inc., 23-footer with an I/O? Fine, the price
is $15,000 or whatever, and I'll toss in some cushions."

There were three large dealerships in that part of Connecticut in those
days, my father's, which was in West Haven and Milford, another in West
Haven, and one in Branford. Two of my father's best friends were the
owners of the other large dealerships. At a memorial for my dad later
that year, the two close dealer friends told me that our "sale" had
killed off nearly 20% of their sales for the year, and had apparently
driven two of the weaker dealerships right out of business.

Of the three large dealerships, only one is still open today, operated by
the grandson of the founder. All were started just before or just after
WW II. Last I heard, only one of the original proprietors was still
alive.

The irony is that my mother and I had tried to talk my father into
selling off the dealership five years before he died. The retail property
was worth far more than any boat dealership could generate in sales and
profit, and his interest in the marina was practically a liquid asset.
After he died, the other owners of the marina bought us out at the first
partners' meeting, and we sold the store property in West Haven six
months later. The buyers of that parcel razed the boat store and
warehouse and put up a strip mall. Kind of sad.

My mom ended up doing what she and my dad talked about doing. She bought
a nice place in Palm Beach and lived there in the land of perpetual
sunshine for nearly another 20 years before she died.

Yes, I contemplated taking over the family business. But fortunately,
that thought passed in about 20 seconds.






"The real ME" wrote in message
...
Harry,

That is a major accomplishment to unload all of your dad's inventory in
record time for "near full retail". You should be commended for doing
everything you can to minimize the negative impact on the other marina's
in the area. I am curious, since you only discounted the items slightly,
how did you get everyone to drive past all the other marinas and boat
stores, if you were just slightly discounting the product.

This is something many people, including our good friend on Lake Hartwell
would like to know. He might be able to get those boating on all the
other lakes in Georgia and South Carolina to visit him instead of their
local dealers and stores.




I still wonder what kind of actual physical inventory he had. With $3
million in sales he would have had to sell 200 of those 23 foot Cruisers.
Knowing that only one or two of those would have been in stock and the
others were probably far smaller and cheaper, I figure 300 boats were sold
along with 500 or so outboard motors.

Krause has to be the worlds best salesman to have accomplished that.

The place had to be the size of a Walmart Super Store and traffic had to be
lined up as far south as NYC.

Amazing. ;-)