We have 8 west/Bus stores in my county and the small stores usually have
the basic items and the MEGA-store is usually out of at least one basic
item I am looking for (They claim their volume prevents them for keeping
it all in stock.. .sounds like a bad logistics software package). The
MEGA-store will have more of the wierd items though. Good news, if one
doesn't have it, they are situated about every 4 miles on every major
road. (It's sometimes good to live in the yachting capital of the
world...)



akheel wrote:
Wayne.B wrote in
:


On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 02:51:23 GMT, Mys Terry
wrote:


They can well afford to! It's not so much a warrantee, as they let you
pre-pay for the second one when you buy the first.

There's a convenience factor also which is hard to quantify, but it is
certainly worth something to me having a well stocked store 10 minutes
from my house and open 7 days a week.




I was content to lurk on this thread, until I saw the comment about "well
stocked." In my experience, West Marine is anything but. They are always
out of whatever I need. Yes, when they have a sale, they have those
items, but if you want something that's not in the weekly flyer, you have
a 50/50 chance at best. The comment always when I mention the low
inventory on what I actually want to buy, "We're getting a shipment
tomorrow." Yeah right, I used to fall for that, only to come back the
next day and the next to see the same empty spot on the shelf. West
Marine makes an obvious practice of strict inventory control. Only
problem is that it's so strict they often lose the sale because they
don't have the item to sell. I don't know if it's gotten better recently
with the BoatsUS merger, because I gave up on them and now go to my local
independent dealer. He has a small shop, stuffed to the rafters, but
somehow always manages to have what I need, and usually for less.