How to have a boat shop go belly up

The local shop, St. George Marine, is going out of business after 17 years. They handled Centurion, Sanger and Reinell boats.

When I was in the market for a boat, I couldn't find a good reason to buy from them. I was just learning what I wanted and the attempt to convince me I needed what they had was subpar.

About 18 months ago the head mechanic left and started his own repair shop. It's booming for him. He doesn't sell boats yet but hopes to soon.

I guess I'm posting to ask why did it happen. I'm far from the inner workings of the place and don't know all of the details, but many folks here are pleased with their Centurions and Sangers, and the Reinell is generally considered a decent I/O. Our county contains 100K people and we have 3 decent reserviors within 25 minutes drive, and Lake Powell and Lake Mead both within 2 hours drive. The weather is warm from April to October.

I see poor sales and the loss of repair service the main problems - When other dealers have went out, what caused it?


(Message edited by talltigeguy on February 06, 2004)