Boaters World Stores Parent in Bankruptcy

P

Pat Anderson

New member
The parent company of Boaters World, Ritz Camera, has just filed for bankruptcy protection. Read about it here.. Don't know what if anything this means for the 130 stores, but it certainly looks like they could be shut down, as they are cited as being unprofitable...
 
Could mean some great discounts if they liquidate. Good in the short run. But then West Marine won't have much competition, they are almost next door to eachother here, and that will be bad.
 
I don't know about you'all, but I have noticed that West Marine has raised their prices a bunch.... times are tough

I still spend my money there, because when something breaks or does not work....they take it back without a fight... they replaced my radar unit and that was almost $3000... had to replace the dome and all...no problem... no crying no fight... (even though my son does not work there anymore)

Joel
SEA3PO
 
That's a shame about Ritz Camera. While I'm not a photographer by any means I've bought quite a few items from them in the last couple years and thier prices and service were far superior to the big box stores like Best Buy and others. Sounds like another specialty store down the tubes.
 
The word was the Boater's World had a booth at Miami Boat show, but were not allowed to set up because no one had paid for it--and W M took over the space.

I have never seen any other customers in the Boater's world in Pensacola. I wondered how they stayed in business? I would be surprised that they made it through the recession.

On the other hand bankruptcy does not necessarilly mean the end of the company--but not a good sign. The local Ritz Camera store was not well patronized. I either used the local camera store, bought at "Samy's" in Los Angeles or on line thru B & H.
 
thataway":1apy3t40 said:
I have never seen any other customers in the Boater's world in Pensacola. I wondered how they stayed in business? I would be surprised that they made it through the recession.
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Over the last year I have been in Boater's World several times every time I have been the only customer in the store. I thought they would have been out of business long ago. I have bought several things there. Better prices than WM even with my Port Supply discount. I just bought AM/fm/cd player for the CD there yesterday.

Roger
 
Word to the wise, if you have a gift car best to go spend it now. In the bankruptcy protection you are considered an unsecured debt. In that case they may not honor your gift card.
In these times best to spend your gift cards as you get them. Otherwise your liable to be holding onto a lot of worthless plastic not even worth the card it was printed on. :cry :disgust
 
I always wondered how Boater's World stayed in business, but also noticed that they had lower prices than WM. As noted above, I would go into the stores, and they either had no one else shopping, or maybe one other person. And the people that work(ed) there were completely clueless when it came to helping or giving advice about the products that they were selling.

Not that the WM people are much better with advice or product knowledge, I have found them to be hit or miss depending on time and location. But every Boater's World that I ever went into had few customers and staff with little expertise in the products that they were selling.
 
ripple":arx4h73p said:
And the people that work(ed) there were completely clueless when it came to helping or giving advice about the products that they were selling.
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When I was purchasing "jewelry" for our 1st C-Dory, I shopped at both Boaters World and West Marine making purchases at both shops. Contrary to Ripple's experience, I encountered one salesman at Boaters World who really did know the products, was extremely helpful and even spent some time teaching me how to interweave an eye splice in a line. Because of that they did receive some repeat business from me. (Just demonstrates the value of an excellent employee to a business!).

However, since he no longer works there, I've been patronizing West Marine as they are more geographically desirable to me and have also been quite accomodating to my needs.
 
I have generally been able to find at least one person at a given WM who knew what they were talking about. I'm guilty as the next guy at trashing "Worst Marine" but they have saved my bacon numerous times by being nearby wherever I was. As pointed out elsewhere, they have a great return policy and now I am going to start asking them to meet prices I find on the Web. BW or Ritz I won't miss at all.

Warren
 
They are still open in naples .The mgr informed me that they were going to reorganize and keep some of the stores open . Which is good keeps west marine on their tows.
 
I am waiting for the one down the street to go down with a big sell at the end. Circuit city is across from the office and only has 5 days left according to the sign. Some stuff was 30% off and some was 50% off. I hope that boater world does the same.
 
I did hear that Circuit City while selling all stock was selling it in the packing boxes and not letting you open them. Some of the big stuff ended up being broken and they wouldn't honor their return policy, and warranty wasn't working much better.
 
Jim.

"Tows"?? or "toes"?? :lol:

Either way, I agree, we need Boaters World to keep WM feeling they need to please us...

Pat

jennykatz":2okcoox3 said:
They are still open in naples .The mgr informed me that they were going to reorganize and keep some of the stores open . Which is good keeps west marine on their tows.
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Here's a rave for our not so local WM. They do have staff there that know their products, and a lot more about a lot of boating stuff than I do. I also like their return policy. I have used it twice and came out without a broken arm or a hitch :thup :teeth :thup I haven't tried the price match thing yet, but it is coming.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
starcrafttom":1pquecz1 said:
I am waiting for the one down the street to go down with a big sell at the end. Circuit city is across from the office and only has 5 days left according to the sign. Some stuff was 30% off and some was 50% off. I hope that boater world does the same.
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We have a Circuit City, Linens & Things and a Home Depot Expo all within two miles and they've all gone or going through "Liquidation". Be very very careful. Liquidator specialists run the show and the much advertised "savings" aren't. In too many cases the prices can be beaten most anywhere and it's common for the initial two weeks to have prices that are actually higher than they were just before "liquidation". I know what we paid for a flat screen bought at CC with full warranty and return privileges a month before they crashed never dropped to that same price before they were sold out during the "20-40% off" as-is no return liquidation period.

There are opportunities, but, as always, doing your homework is essential.

Don
 
I went to the local Circuit City the other day and while they were advertising 30 to 50% off I didn't see anything that remotely resembled a deal.

As far as the Boaters Worlds in the last year they have built two new stores in my area. Both were pretty nice but seriously lacked competent help. They did have a little better prices and sales on some things than West but as others have said had very little business. At the same time as we speak West is closing two of their stores in the area and having some pretty good sales but some of the prices have been raised to reflect a larger savings. They are replacing these two older stores with one new Mega Store scheduled to open around the middle of March.
 
We took our cc-23 up to Tampa bay last week and we found a Boaters world store ,We found a bunch of stuff that we wanted some nice canvas chairs etc. There are still some nice deals to be had maps ,fishing gear ,anchoring assesories, motors etc. It's to bad they are going out of business I liked them better them WM
 
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