Boater's World is no more

[J's Dream]

Well as of today, Boater's World is owned and operated by a liquidation company, and EVERYTHING in the stores (all 140 of them) is 10-30% off. This is the end of the company, as all the stores will be closing before summer.

It is unfortunate, as this really affects not only the customers, but all the employees who will be shortly without a job, or a place to get one. Now the only marine store in town here is West Marine, which is NOT where I will be shopping.

 

[Silverado6x6]

The big box stores are folding like a windblown stack of cards, wednesday I heard 23 Sportsmen Warehouse stores shut their doors and are liquidating. We had one built and opened just last year here in Wasilla, Alaska. It has changed ownership and will stay open. We had an excellent family owned gun store but they are now a fraction of the original size.

Perhaps the mom and pop stores will make a comeback?

I am really hoping our new Target folds, I hate that store, overpriced bling.

 

[whaler23]

From Bloomberg;

Boat stores close
Bloomberg News
March 20, 2009
Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest U.S. camera store chain, has won court permission to liquidate the bankrupt company's Boater's World stores.

Ritz should collect $40 million from going-out-of business sales at the 129 stores, company attorney Irving Walker told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath in a hearing yesterday in Wilmington, Del.

"This sale is in the best interest of the creditors," Walker said.

Beltsville-based Ritz expects to close more than half of its 800 remaining camera stores and reorganize the rest, company attorney Norman Pernick said in an interview. The 91-year-old company, which had sales of almost $1 billion in 2008, listed assets and debt of less than $500 million each in its bankruptcy petition filed last month.



Walrath gave the company permission yesterday to hire store liquidator Gordon Brothers Group LLC to shut down the Boater's World chain, which has seven stores in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Gordon Brothers won an auction for the right to conduct the going-out-of business sales by guaranteeing that Ritz would collect at least 90 percent of the value of the goods sold during the liquidation

 

[Passages]

This was predictable but I'm sorry to see it become reality.

WM is also consolidating stores, be interesting to see if they can survive the financial storm.

I am not optimistic the Mom & Pop shops will be able to fill the void. Having to pay for storefront and lacking purchase power of the big box stores puts them at a huge disadvantage to internet sales.

Customer service will be the only market differentiator, but it will be over shadowed by value concious shoppers.

Sure, folks will come in and browse, buy small items or things that are difficult to ship, but big ticket items will no longer be bought locally.

No matter what you think of BW or WM, this is not good news for boaters.

 

[Boatsb]

I hate to be the unpopular one that reminds us all that internet sales have hurt us all. Sales tax is rarely paid and some go out of their way to get around paying it.

In Florida internet purchases are subject to use tax at the same rate as sales tax. How many people skirt this?

If the people buying do not support local stores there will be none.

 

[nyrussell]

ok, what is the price for bilgekote and bottom paint... Shame or not, we still need some of this stuff before they close.....

 

[MikeP]

On Kent Island, there is a WM about a mile from the marina and a BW about 3 miles. I much preferred BW but last season when I was there in Dec winterizing, when I went to BW they had very little compared to the same store a year earlier. Didn't even have antifreeze. I wondered at the time if it was because it was the off season...guess not. That's a shame. There is a small mom/pop type marine store in the same general area that, though not very large, has decent prices and are nice to deal with. Wonder if they will be able to hang on - I buy my oil and zincs there. Zincs are nearly 1/2 the price of the same zincs at WM.

 

[Paul45c]

I'm never happy to see any business catering to the marine crowd going under, but I've to say I'll shed no big tears over Boater's World. Once in a great while they'd have some noteworthy sales on some fishing gear, but other than that it was a pretty useless store. Fine for fru-fru clothes, I guess. Now, if my local Boat Owner's Warehouse went under, that would be cause for alarm! I think I made it into my local Boater's World about once a year, West Marine maybe twice, but B.O.W. about 3 times/week!