RE: [Cal_Boats] Re: West Marine Price Fixing, Chocolate $$ & Lucky Lindy.

Yes, And not only that. As Americans are forced out of fear and desperation to cut corners and drive the extra mile (read, more fuel consumption and deteriorating balance of payments) to buy stuff at Walmart (read, products made by China, Inc.a country known for minimum wages and substandard working conditions) the more American industry is starved, and a made less competitive. Even if the Congress finally came to it's senses and gave the American consumer a break(read, cut my Discover Card interest rate from something less predatory than 29.99% [read:30% which would give me heart failure], as it stands now, the money would just leave the country anyway, and poof! make the "stimulus" disappear like a mirage. My Dad, who wasn't born in this country, would NEVER consider buying anything foreign, saying, "why should I use my hard earned wages to put a fellow American out of a job?" Meanwhile, I and my fellow boaters are fighting the County of Los Angeles's determination to force a 70' tall "dry stack" boat storage building to be built, once again to swipe County, State, and Federal parkland (reclaimed from chemical waste [read:capped off oil and gas wells which are currently leaking, metal plating plants with toxic land fill, ancient refineries] to build a new corporate shopping center to augment the several that already exist within quarter of a mile, namely, the mast-up-storage lot, car+trailer, and spacious launching ramp...for which the whole darn marina was supposed to be built for...to begin with. %$#@ Arrrgh! The Supervisors have declared the "Design Control Board" irrelevant, and declined to file a regional plan with the California Coastal Commision. It's called "democracy", and we wonder why many countries and many Earthlings don't want any part of it. And, the journalists (read:English Major-drop-outs) have yet to give us a coherent explanation what a debt-whatsis- whatchamacallit-swap stealth traded on the unregulated black market is, and why and how it's caused a 700 trillion dollar black-hole in the planet which we all must fill with our dead bodies, and our children's children's dead bodies, 401K,s pensions, and all the gold-tinned chocolate coin- gelt and wooden nickles in Fort Knox. And we used to be afraid a nucuelahr power plant melt down would create a worm hole short cut to Bay-Kah-Chinggg? Hey, let's all go sailing! And for you folks up North, Boat US Mag.that just arrived at my door step has a cool article on Ice Boats. I didn't know Charlie Lindberg's suggestions had an influence on the DN ice boat design, did U? Jerry --- On Fri, 3/6/09, Scott Cyphers <sc… [at] sbcglobal.net> wrote: From: Scott Cyphers <sc… [at] sbcglobal.net> Subject: RE: [Cal_Boats] Re: West Marine Price Fixing To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 1:20 PM You have hit it on the head. That is the problem everywhere. Starbucks, Home Depot, chain restaurants, Kmart, Wal-Mart. It is hard to not buy from these stores because money is tight. It is a wave that has destroyed the entrepreneurial spirit in this country. Blah Blah Blah…corporations aren’t going to change. Scott From: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com [mailto: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com ] On Behalf Of Whirled Peas Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 1:04 PM To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Re: West Marine Price Fixing I’ll probably get grilled for saying this... but these West Marine price fixing examples are failures of free market capitalism. Allowing one mega corporation to out franchise the mom and pop businesses that America was built on- that's not American. It is not economic freedom and it's not self determination. What are we left with in the end? A lack of choice, a lack of quality, and a lack of independently run local business (and the lack of ability to even think of starting one up again and competing against the monopoly company). I'm not promoting any other system here... I'm just calling it like I see it. Our small microcosm of sailboat parts shopping is sort of like a miners canary if you think about it. I never buy from West Marine. First and last stop- mom and pop's shop. Cris From: Rodney G Johnson <rjohnson24@juno. com> To: Cal_Boats@yahoogrou ps.com Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 9:50:09 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Re: West Marine Price Fixing Chris, until you mentioned this I hadn't really thought about it! But you are SO right! Around here many of the smaller chandleries (like the one I used to work for) order from a supplier called "KELLOGG MARINE", (they are supposedly owned by Brunswick , so much for the little guy..but!!) and if you need something... .they can get it to the local guy the next day usually! Not everything is at WEST Marine (or as a friend calls it , "Worst Marine") prices, but some things are actually LESS $$, and it probably balances out. Try getting WEST to have something come in the next day...hardly ever happens! The WEST Marine and BOAT/US Stores around here used to be good, when they first opened it was WONDERFUL, like walking into the WEST or BOAT/US catalog! They had all the real boat stuff we need! But like you say, the little guys couldn't really compete...even though they were able to give one thing that the big guys can't (well, what the big guys stopped providing after the first year or so of operation!) that is, personal service by store clerks who actually know boats! In the beginning, WEST was like that.....I still remember back in the early 1990's when we replaced the cabin vents on our CAL 21, we went to WEST and they only had one of the vents we needed, they bent over backwards to arrange a direct shipment to our home of the other 2 we needed, no shipping charge, and we had them a few days later! The last time I needed WEST to get something like that to me I'd have to pay shipping, unless I wanted to pick it up at the store....and either way it was not going to be anytime quick! The worst part about what happens to the local little guys after WEST come in is that not only does WEST stop carrying the items that real boatowners need (as opposed to marina-dwelling, "let the boatyard do the work", where's my TV and DVD, who used all the ice, help I'm lost without my GPS stinkpotters) but they raise the prices! I also remember when I needed to replace the bunk brackets on my trailer, I needed 4 brackets. WEST had 1 in stock at the first store that I went to, so I went down the street to another WEST store, they had 1 bracket! Well ,I wasn't going to buy 1, go back to the first store to buy another, then order the other 2! No time! Well, I went to a BOATER'S WORLD store the next day, not only did they have about 10-15 of those brackets in stock, but they were less $$$! Now, Boater's World is still not my first choice...and they seems to be slipping into the WEST Marine mold, but still....THEY actually had what I needed!! Unfortunately, this is not a philosophy limited to marine stores, or "the big guys", I presently work part-time for a regional store chain, (sort-of a modern General Store), and the "basic" on items is often set low to cut down on "costly" stock in the stores. (Basic is how many of an item is to be kept "in stock" at all times) If there is an item that we sell only about 3 per month, we will often only have 2-4 in stock. That's fine, until the not so rare instance when a customer comes in needing 6 of that item....well, we may be able to get the rest from one of our other store locations... ..but if they are out as well....we have to wait until we can get an "emergency order" or until our every 2-weeks normal order. I've tried to get the Management to understand the stupidity of their basics on several items...but no luck! We have our own warehouse, our own trucks and vans.....so I see no reason why we couldn't get a needed item to the store in less than 24 hours (possibly the same day often!) but it doesn't work that way! If we could get items in in less than 24 hours, I could see the low basics, but since in some cases it may be 2-3 weeks or more before we get more stock....well, you can see it ain't going to work! The crew at the warehouse are also not the brightest bulbs in the world.....sometimes we don't get something because they just didn't feel like looking for it...it's not back ordered, they just couldn't bother to find where it is! Well ,enough complaining! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 On Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:04:09 -0500 Chris Campbell <clcampbell@charteri nternet.com> writes: . ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ___ Digital Photography - Click Now.