Fuel on the fire

[34Hatt]

For the shameless price hounds, find a business with a wholesale "Port Supply" acct at WM, and have them give you a card. It lets them bump up their volume and gets them better prices.

Port Supply use to be good but their prices suck now also. If you have a business go to Jamestown wholesale better pricing then port and free shipping also they have most things in stock and get it to you in a Day at least I am one day. I have ordered in the afternoon had it the next evening!

[jim rosenthal]

I don't think the PS prices are very good. Among other things, they adjust the discount to the volume you buy, as I understand it; in other words, the more you buy, the more discount. So the smallest businesses, who would most benefit from the discount, get the least of it. This sounds like the West Marine credo writ large, to me. All the traffic will bear, and then some as well.

As several previous posts have said- they are there, for me, for emergencies- when I can't get it anywhere else, when I have to have it, etc. Not the first choice in any situation- really the last, as their policies and pricing are predatory. Having forced Boat US out of the business altogether, they are busily engaged in squeezing every last dime out of all of us. No, thanks.

[hromberg]

Not the first choice in any situation- really the last, as their policies and pricing are predatory. Having forced Boat US out of the business altogether, they are busily engaged in squeezing every last dime out of all of us. No, thanks.

Soap box warning

Um..... I don't want to be an ECON 101 professor, but the whole concept of "predatory pricing" is complete and utter BS. You and everyone else out there offer your goods and services at the best price you think you can get, and negotiate where you think you have to, and you get what you get. It's that simple.

All a price is, is a number at which the buyer would rather have the stuff and the seller would rather have the cash. Anyone who tells you different is scamming you.

As for "preying on" your competition, that's just horse crap. They didn't force Boat US out of the running. They BOUGHT their stores. You run your business the best you can, and if you thrive that's fine. If you're so good or so big that nobody can compete, GREAT! Excellence is a good thing, and in business it means people get more for less. That kicks butt. You might even end up being the only game in town......until you try to cash in on that. As soon as you start jacking up your prices to do so, you create a profit opportunity for new competition to enter or re-enter the market. With several billion people out there looking for a way to make a buck it won't be long before somebody snags that opportunity.

We got sold a complete bill of goods when they cannonized the whole "monopolies are evil and must be destroyed" mantra. The ONLY way you can simultaneously keep a monopoly and profit from having it is if you have the ability to forcibly keep competitors out of the market. That doesn't happen without help from Big Brother.

You don't like company X, don't buy from em. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that it's somehow evil to run a business well and grow it into a powerhouse. People doing that are what feed, clothe and house us, and do just about everything else of value in this world. Your coffee this morning didn't appear because the grower, processor, shippers, and all the other millions of people involved in putting it in your cup love you and want you to have a great morning. They all got up and went to work because they were looking for a way to make a buck. Good old harnessed greed. Don't be ashamed of it.

End soap box section.

[smoothmove]

Soap box warning

Um..... I don't want to be an ECON 101 professor, but the whole concept of "predatory pricing" is complete and utter BS. You and everyone else out there offer your goods and services at the best price you think you can get, and negotiate where you think you have to, and you get what you get. It's that simple.

All a price is, is a number at which the buyer would rather have the stuff and the seller would rather have the cash. Anyone who tells you different is scamming you.

You don't like company X, don't buy from em.....

End soap box section.

I've been waiting a long time to hear someone say that.
Eric

[rsmith]

Soap box warning

Um..... I don't want to be an ECON 101 professor, but the whole concept of "predatory pricing" is complete and utter BS. You and everyone else out there offer your goods and services at the best price you think you can get, and negotiate where you think you have to, and you get what you get. It's that simple.

All a price is, is a number at which the buyer would rather have the stuff and the seller would rather have the cash. Anyone who tells you different is scamming you.

As for "preying on" your competition, that's just horse crap. They didn't force Boat US out of the running. They BOUGHT their stores. You run your business the best you can, and if you thrive that's fine. If you're so good or so big that nobody can compete, GREAT! Excellence is a good thing, and in business it means people get more for less. That kicks butt. You might even end up being the only game in town......until you try to cash in on that. As soon as you start jacking up your prices to do so, you create a profit opportunity for new competition to enter or re-enter the market. With several billion people out there looking for a way to make a buck it won't be long before somebody snags that opportunity.

We got sold a complete bill of goods when they cannonized the whole "monopolies are evil and must be destroyed" mantra. The ONLY way you can simultaneously keep a monopoly and profit from having it is if you have the ability to forcibly keep competitors out of the market. That doesn't happen without help from Big Brother.

You don't like company X, don't buy from em. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that it's somehow evil to run a business well and grow it into a powerhouse. People doing that are what feed, clothe and house us, and do just about everything else of value in this world. Your coffee this morning didn't appear because the grower, processor, shippers, and all the other millions of people involved in putting it in your cup love you and want you to have a great morning. They all got up and went to work because they were looking for a way to make a buck. Good old harnessed greed. Don't be ashamed of it.

End soap box section.

"I don't want to be an ECON 101 professor, but the whole concept of "predatory pricing" is complete and utter BS. You and everyone else out there offer your goods and services at the best price you think you can get, and negotiate where you think you have to, and you get what you get. It's that simple."

Bullcrap, you must live under a rock. How do you think all the Mega corps put the Mom and Pops out of bussiness?

[saltshaker]

WOW 3 pages of this! I'm not a fan of West Marine but it's their business to run as they see fit and it's our choice to shop where we see fit. They've bought up some good chains over the years. They used to be great with pricing and product selection. Now I find neither is true. Years ago I made most of my purchases there or at the BOATUS store. Now I rarely shop at West. Between Defender and Jamestown, I can get most of what I need at a reasonable price.

[lumina]

Hi All,

Agree with Jack, and want to add that....what WM needs to get a reality check on pricing, product availability and quality, is good stiff competition.

I have have it on good authority that for their target market, which they feel they've cornered, (ie local immediate availability of product for the under 30' demographic) and given there's no competitor of similar size (brick and mortar and Internet combined) that they are free to price as they do.

We can debate monopolies all day long, but the bottom line is that a sector with competition yields better pricing and service and product than a sector with only one major player.

Now is this their fault, no, they are shrewd business people, has a monster been created, yes.

We all have choices, mine is to buy local, buy from their closest competitors (Defender and Jamestown) and to insist on price matching if WM wants my business. Matching is the equalizer that takes the place of a competitor.

[lumina]

WOW 3 pages of this!

Jack, you may remember the thread on this very topic maybe a year and a half ago, went many pages, and I think there was one earlier than that........

I think it's more of a cathartic thing, people just need to convey that they're mad as hell about being taken advantage of and their not going to take it any more. Then once all that energy has been released we all wait for the next eruption and say the same things again.......

[saltshaker]

Remember that West Marine grew as a mail order retailer. They bought up other chains to increase their brick and mortar business. Now they're going to get bit in the @$$ for price gouging. I don't think they'll last too long given their current pricing and product availability. Defender has grown immensely as an internet retailer by keeping the same commitment to fair pricing and excellent customer service. West used to be the same but now they make you fight them for a reasonable price. Customer service is still good when you can make a purchase. Unfortunately their only in the warehouse stocking mentality makes it hard to do business with them except for buying staples like soap or basic safety gear. But again that's their choice and it is my choice to take the $5K+ a year that I used to spend there elsewhere.

[hromberg]

"I don't want to be an ECON 101 professor, but the whole concept of "predatory pricing" is complete and utter BS. You and everyone else out there offer your goods and services at the best price you think you can get, and negotiate where you think you have to, and you get what you get. It's that simple."

Bullcrap, you must live under a rock. How do you think all the Mega corps put the Mom and Pops out of bussiness?

They offered their customers a better deal. Tell me, exactly how the eff is it preying on someone to offer a better deal than they can. It's called competition. Deal with it.

Edit to add: Thinking about this issue more, I find I'm more bothered by the assumptions being made than anything else. The phrasing "put all the mom and pops out of business" is completely bass ackwards. ALL businessesfail as the default state. It's automatic, UNLESS THEY ACT to provide sufficient value to their customers that their revenue is greater than their costs and some margin of profit. There is absolutely nothing that entitles a business to a market share or to income, any more than we're entitled to income as individuals. We have to earn it and so do businesses big and small. Fail and you go bankrupt.

You can fail because you suck or because your competition is awesome. The result is the same.

Anyway, lots of people seem to think that there is virtue being the underdog and that it somehow entitles us to be "helped" by Big Brother when the "evil" big corporations come and try to destroy us by.........offering a better deal.

Tell me this. Which person is more evil? The executive that works hard to make his company so efficient that it's provides better value than anyone else....... or the sole proprietor who uses the local government's guns to run off his competition and tops it off with a sermon about how he's the one that really cares about his customers.