Re: [Cal_Boats] Stocking/Inventory Levels (John)

John, It's been the same up here for a while now, as well. Now that we are setting up a retail arm for marine electrical components and wire, etc, we are hoping that will work to our advantage. We'll have fewer different items, but more of the ones people are likely to need...Plus, they have a national model of whom their customer is, and have to stock 408 stores pretty much the same, at least in the electrical dept, I would think. I only have the one location, and that's hard enough! Best-Mark Mark and Terry Rogers Mobile Marine Electrical Services/MMES Custom Panels "Seirenia", 1966 Cal 36 hull #22 Newburyport, Ma

WM is increasingly coming under the control of non-boaters who see 'opportunities' to maximize sales with mass appeal items. The CEO is a professional CEO/retail guy, the new vice president is an ex-executive from Kohls, they have brought in several non-boater district managers and the overall focus is salesmanship. While they are happy with the success of pushing Garmin auto streetpilots, barbeques, coolers and tubes, the stores themselves are frustrated with many internal issues. We are flooded with these Walmart-ready items while the warehouse is out of advertised sale flyer items or commonly needed things. Replenishment levels are sometimes bizzare, like a zillion shroud covers for a store in Mercruiserland, or 4 spark plugs for 8 cyl engines. It disturbs me to hear that the warehouse wants to reduce inventory, because thats where the more infrequent items are held. I think upper management sees this trend as add-ons or enhancements of the basic line, while customers and store staff are concerned about a shift in emphasis. Anyway, the WM prices should allow you enough room to profit handsomely, Mark. John D. ya… [at] aol.com wrote: John, It's been the same up here for a while now, as well. Now that we are setting up a retail arm for marine electrical components and wire, etc, we are hoping that will work to our advantage. We'll have fewer different items, but more of the ones people are likely to need...Plus, they have a national model of whom their customer is, and have to stock 408 stores pretty much the same, at least in the electrical dept, I would think. I only have the one location, and that's hard enough! Best-Mark Mark and Terry Rogers Mobile Marine Electrical Services/MMES Custom Panels "Seirenia", 1966 Cal 36 hull #22 Newburyport, Ma __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

On May 31, 2006, at 4:34 AM, ya… [at] aol.com wrote: > John, > > It's been the same up here for a while now, as well. Now that we > are setting up a retail arm for marine electrical components and > wire, etc, we are hoping that will work to our advantage. We'll > have fewer different items, but more of the ones people are likely > to need.. Try to find a 1/4 inch nylon lock nut in West marine. You'd think that would be a very common item but they are always out of stock. And that includes all the stores from San Pedro to Newport Beach. I've asked them about it and they don't use SKUs to track sales. Somebody has to go by and look in all the bins. > .Plus, they have a national model of whom their customer is, and > have to stock 408 stores pretty much the same, at least in the > electrical dept, I would think. I only have the one location, and > that's hard enough! It helps to have someone who knows what the stuff is used for. Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 > > Best-Mark > > Mark and Terry Rogers > > Mobile Marine Electrical Services/MMES Custom Panels > > "Seirenia", 1966 Cal 36 hull #22 > Newburyport, Ma > > > SPONSORED LINKS > Boating sailing Sailing boat Sailing > Boating > > YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS > > Visit your group "Cal_Boats" on the web. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > >

John, I don't have any problem competing with my friends at West on price...I don't think that the retail part of my operation will be a huge money maker, but it'll do OK. The thing I am hoping to gain from it is people through the door who then get to see some of the custom stuff we are doing and it helps drive panel and harness sales. We just added a 3 axis CNC router that can do up to 51" x 51" pieces in one pass. And, once I practice with it a bit, and learn the software, it can do fancy wooden sign and number boards easily, so that adds another dimension to our capability. Hmmm, maybe carved wooden engine and electrical panels??? Spent the weekend with Terry sanding the bottom, first time we've been to the boat since it was hauled while we were at the Annapolis show. The weather was not good this spring, with flooding and marinas wrecked and everything else. While it seems like we are a month or more behind schedule, we are ahead of a lot of other people. I'm waiting to see what happens here, between fuel costs and the loss of a lot of dockage I suspect some boats won't even be uncovered. Fortunately, our house is on higher ground than a lot of those around the area. They were catching 3 foot Carp in the back yards at my sister in laws house. They live about a third of a mile from the river! And the marina where we winter did not suffer major damage...the one 500 feet downstream was decimated by all the docks and wreckage coming down the river from marinas and towns above it, as were several others. A number of us are going to wait a couple of weeks for all the junk in the river to settle. There are submerged docks and boats that every so often will just pop up in the middle of the channel and then disappear again. Depends on which way the river is flowing when the tides run. It took almost a week for the level to subside enough so there is an incoming tidal flow above the harbor. We had stuff turn up on Plum Island beach from 60 miles upstream. Best-Mark Mark and Terry Rogers Mobile Marine Electrical Services/MMES Custom Panels "Seirenia", 1966 Cal 36 hull #22 Newburyport, Ma