Defender Marine / West Marine

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henrymei said:
When a business can make more money selling clothing, that’s what they’ll sell. I remember when Lands End was a high end marine hardware store and their catalogue used to have technical articles on sailing. Then they started to sell clothes. How many remember that?
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I remember...people think I nuts when I said they used to sell dinghies, outboards, all kinds of hard to find hardware...... :oldman:
 
psneeld said:
I remember...people think I nuts when I said they used to sell dinghies, outboards, all kinds of hard to find hardware...... :oldman:
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The early Lands End catalogs of sailboat blocks and other hardware were beautifully photographed and printed. The pictures of Harken Blocks were sailing porn :)

And if I remember correctly, West Marine was originally a tiny store among the cargo warehouses behind Boston’s Logan Airport. At that point the leader was James Bliss Marine who had a store on the waterfront of downtown Boston (also out in Dedham).
 
Thought West Marine started out west??????
 
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My local west marine has nothing in stock anymore. Can’t even buy a hose clamp. The store is all clothing now
 
I Like West Marine

I get it, there's a lot of dislike for West Marine. As a Defender customer (as well as other online stores like Hodges Marine, Wholesale Marine and others), I'd be put off a bit by changes in Defender's business model. But those things happen. I buy a lot at West Marine. Our store in Virginia Beach, VA is large, carries lots of inventory of all things nautical, and even has nautical clothes. (Most of us wear clothes on our boats, right?) I'd say about 15% of the floor space is clothing. Lots more floor space for fishing, electronics, nuts & bolts, batteries, dinghies, SUPs, fenders, fiberglass maintenance and repair, wires & terminals, etc. Good prices, too. It's a great place.

Around here, I go to at least five grocery stores to get what I need. Trader Joes has good vegetables and wine. Harris Teeter/Kroger has a broad general selection. Whole Foods has good crackers. Wegman's has good meat and baked goods. I get fresh fish, oysters and blue crabs from the local watermen. Fresh Market sells Irish Bangers, which are wonderful! I buy Black Pudding online.

I like West Marine.
 
West Marine has a pretty decent sale coming up, just got my flyer---25% off all batteries, buy one get one free offshore inflatable pfd's were the ones that quickly caught my eye.
 
This past weekend my Whale Gulper 220 shower pump stopped working. Investigation revealed a bad duck valve on the output side. Cheapest price was my local West Marine in Mystic, CT. A first for me. It was a rebuild kit for about $31.00 with tax. They had it waiting at the pick up desk.

Defender is local for me. Recently needed 1/4" teak bungs for another project. Diane picked them up at Defender. It was and ordeal with several other frustrated customers in the store.

Apparently since the remodel the show room is much smaller and the workers have to pick many of the items you might want. Long waits and the enjoyment of looking at everything is gone.

Sad to see the change after so many years. But, very pleasant experience at West Marine. What a change.

Rob
 
I have a West marine about 1 mile from my marina and 50% of the time they don't have what I need. Very frustrating and it makes you really wonder if their business model is to go out of business.
 
mvweebles said:
Santa Cruz CA. Randy Repass was the brains.

EDIT - I stand corrected. First store was Palo Alto CA as "West Coast Ropes." A few years later, he bought out an outfit in Boston "West Products." Name was changed to West Marine.

https://www.westmarine.com/aboutus/Company-History.html

Learn something every day.....

Peter
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Thanks for finding that. The West store I remember among the warehouses near Boston Logan airport must have been an outlet store attached to the West mail order warehouse much as Defender has a similar store.

An interesting back story is that Randy Repass’ father, George Repass, founded New England Ropes in New Bedford MA with partner David Aigler in 1967. George and Dave invested in starting Randy’s business West Coast Rope. So presumably, Randy grew up in Boston.
 
Pappi said:
...I'd say about 15% of the floor space is clothing. ...
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That must be an exceptional WM and unlike any I've been in. I never measured it off, but I my guess would be about one third devoted to clothing and shoes, on average, in the stores I've visited in at least seven states, if not more.
 
The last couple I have been in were in fishing areas and there were big fishing related areas in the store.... they never really discounted any of their fishing tackle to Port Supply or other deals.
 
I think it depends on location as to what they primarily stock, the West Marine I shop (Albany NY) is maybe 10% apparel and shoes.

But when I visited one on Cape Cod it was more like 50% apparel, 25% sporting goods (fishing, paddleboards, kayaking, beach toys), 25% boat parts and maintenance. I left that one after no one would cut wire for me after asking 3 employees for assistance. Plenty of help if you wanted Helly Hansen bluewater outerwear to walk the streets of Hyannis though.
 
I paid the $50 to Defender for the discounts they use to give to “members” about three weeks before they eliminated the program. They were supposed to provide greater discounts on select items for the remainder of the year’s period, per an email they sent out. So far, I haven’t seen any additional discount. I asked for a refund via their contact system, and never received a reply. Bad business practice, and an indication to me they don’t need my business.
 
Helmsman said:
I paid the $50 to Defender for the discounts they use to give to “members” about three weeks before they eliminated the program. They were supposed to provide greater discounts on select items for the remainder of the year’s period, per an email they sent out. So far, I haven’t seen any additional discount. I asked for a refund via their contact system, and never received a reply. Bad business practice, and an indication to me they don’t need my business.
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From what I saw before the remainder of my membership expired, the additional discount was a flat 5% off at checkout. Nothing shown on the product pages.
 
rslifkin said:
From what I saw before the remainder of my membership expired, the additional discount was a flat 5% off at checkout. Nothing shown on the product pages.
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Thank you. So if you buy $1,000 of merchandise you get your money back. I think the original terms were better than that. Can’t remember though. It has been a few months. They did eliminate shipping charges, but that just means they rolled it into the price.
 
Helmsman said:
Thank you. So if you buy $1,000 of merchandise you get your money back. I think the original terms were better than that. Can’t remember though. It has been a few months. They did eliminate shipping charges, but that just means they rolled it into the price.
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How good the original discounts were for the program depended on what you were buying. Sometimes the discounts were significant, other times they were pretty small.
 
Ive foind fw pumps, blackbwater lift pumps and other common marine items on Amazon at good pricing.
 
Totally true. Defender is a complete disgrace now.
 
Another option, especially for the PNW/SEAK region is LFS and their online presence Go2Marine. I've found good prices on crab and prawn traps, and anchor chain at times. Very helpful people at the Bellingham store.
 
Actually even when Defender was good I would go with Amazon since there isn’t a shipping charge. The free shipping would offset a lower price in a lot of cases.
 
I use them all. Bought a new chart plotter and West Marine was the cheapest.
 
jimdavi said:
I use them all. Bought a new chart plotter and West Marine was the cheapest.
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Good point. I've heard that the margin on electronics is pretty thin to begin with. I've found West Marine can sometimes have the best price. It's certainly on my list of places to check when I upgrade my plotter.
 
The problem I have with West Marine at least near me is they will list in-store items online and then when I go to the store, they don't have it. Has happened more than a couple times. I have bought quite a bit from Marine Parts Source and have had good experiences with Defender within the last 6 months.
 
PhilPB said:
The problem I have with West Marine at least near me is they will list in-store items online and then when I go to the store, they don't have it. Has happened more than a couple times. I have bought quite a bit from Marine Parts Source and have had good experiences with Defender within the last 6 months.
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Have had similar issues. Pretty sure that 10+ years of VC ownership has resulted in paltry technology investments to offset the high fees the cufflink owners pay themselves.

Peter
 
WM sells some items (such as Rule pumps they know they'll sell a lot of) as loss leaders, then kill you on wire, connectors etc... The trick is to figure out which is which.
 
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