Larry W4CSC wrote:

By the way, if you keep it, denatured alcohol is MUCH cheaper from the
paint department at Home Depot or other warehouse hardware store in
the gallon can.......than say We$t Marine.....


Funny thing, possibly because I'm a regular customer: Our marina store
gave us a gallon of alcohol for 2/3rds of the cost of the hardware store
price, even though it was marked twice as expensive. I'd signed for the
higher price and expected to pay the full bill for the convenience, but
the bill was adjusted before it hit our account.

Sometimes, spending a few bucks at the local shop can save quite a bit
more than that later. I don't think I've paid "list" price on anything
at the marina for a couple of years. This was the first time I could
point to our price being below the best price I could find anywhere
else, but
price reductions off of the signed price have been pretty usual.

The more lazy I get, the more I find that local shops match and often
beat the national chain's prices if they know you as a customer and know
you know the chains' prices. A couple of times, I confronted the local
shops with the nationals' prices, but stopped when I discovered I could
get better prices when I didn't mention actual numbers. After only a few
transactions, I found the locals gave me better prices on average than
the nationals would give.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/