Westmarine - the good and the bad

[otaga05]

My main reason for favoring Hamilton Marine over WM is that they are locally owned. The manager of the Searsport, ME store lives just up the road from me. I know that any extra money I spend there will be re-spent locally. Same reason I bank at a locally owned bank that invests my money in the region where I work and gives a lot of money to local charities, and shop at locally owned lumber yard and hardware store. With WM I don't know where the profits are spent.

[JT1019]

I wanted to chime in as my experiences have been slightly different than those of the rest of the group. I dock in Deep River CT, only 20min from Defender (aka. The Toy Store) so as I’m sure you can imagine I drive over whenever possible. Sometimes it’s just not reasonable to drive 20min for something that costs $5.00 so I choose the new Deep River WorstMarine Express. These guys are fantastic, in every respect. I find what I need quickly, get it at Defender prices and support the local stores. (All the staff are from town). If they don’t have what I need, they get it and they get it fast. The service is great and the staff are smart enough to say “I don’t know” instead of giving me some bull#$it answer. I know this is the exception to the rule with WorstMarine but I wanted to point it out.

As far as spending the profits of the WestMarine Corporation, they do a lot for the community and I have seen it first hand. They have a program for kids to barrow lifejackets, epirbs to rent at a great discount, waterfront clean-up projects, local clean-water education programs, educational programs on products they sell and other such things. Defender does many of the same things, including donating boats to fire departments and rescue teams but not free education. Just food for thought….

[JiffyLube]

Looks like the new CEO at West Marine is making changes!

Look at WM's new 2008 catalog, and their online site. WM says "We Won’t Be Beat – Low Price Guarantee"

[jgaddis]

Here is las vegas we have a great west marine, they will match any price. Even while at the stone if I just google the item on my iphone and show them the google shopping screen that shows prices lowest to highest, they always match the lowest.

+1 for me for WM

[SEMIJim]

Originally Posted by jgaddis

Here is las vegas we have a great west marine, they will match any price.

Heh. I should've tried that with stainless cotter pins a week ago. Get this:

• 1/8" x 1", Home Depot: 12 cents/ea.
• 3/32" x 1", Mike's Marine: 8 cents/ea.
• 3/32" x 1", West Marine: 50 cents/ea.

Like I said earlier: I like our local WM, and they've treated us very well, but ya gotta watch out.

Jim

[sailingdog]

SemiJIM-

Please check the cotter pins with a magnet... good marine-grade stainless is austentitic and non-magnetic in nature. Cheaper, non-marine grades of stainless are generally magnetic.

[camaraderie]

WEST has changed their price matching policy both on line and in the stores.
A good thing and kudos to the new CEO.
They are still overpriced so you should always shop the web and know what things are worth before you walk in there.

[sailingdog]

Hopefully, they'll get their prices in the stores in-line and we won't have to come in armed with a piece of paper to get the street retail prices on stuff..

[brak]

Today for the first time I visited Fawcetts in Annapolis. If anyone wants to complain about high prices at WM, they really need to visit that store to understand what high means I guess you pay for location.

[JiffyLube]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Hopefully, they'll get their prices in the stores in-line and we won't have to come in armed with a piece of paper to get the street retail prices on stuff..

I agree with you.

It's like going grocery shopping at stores that use discount cards, that will give you the discounted price only if you have one of their cards. Why don't they get rid of the card, and just sell you the product at the price you're going to get it at anyway with the card? I know they like tracking people's purchases, but they can still do that without a card. The only reason people use those cards is for the lower price, and it's not buying the store any loyality...people tend to go where the prices are lower for the same product.

If WM will honor other companies lower price including shipping, they should just lower prices from the get go. What WM is doing is a good start, and in time maybe what they do will get even better.