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I just spent the last month fixing up a 20 foot aluminum boat with a 90 HP Mercury for fishing and hunting. New floor, console, seating, electrical, numbers, depth finders, fasteners, chargers, nonskid, epoxy, stereo, pumps, batteries, lighting, rod holders....a whole bunch of different things. Because of the amount of different stuff that went into the project, I paid attention to the material pricing.
Living in South Florida means there is a lot of local marine parts purchase options. West Marine, Salvage Yards, BOW, Merritt Supply, Walmart...plus the online options like Amazon. What I found was that West Marine's pricing is out of control. They are typically 2 times the price of all other offerings from the simplest items to most complex and their employees all know this. In their largest store (superstore) there were always more staff than shoppers. Between work and home I can easily hit 4 different West Marine stores and I would always ask about the high prices and the employees chuckled, shrugged their shoulders or seemed embarrassed.
I understand in many places West is the only option and as nice as it is to have a local emergency supply option but their price structure is a mess. I will try every option to avoid their store and now I almost refuse to spend money at their stores. If nothing else, online options will put them out of business. Too bad for all us needing parts.
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