RIP Cruisermart....

[bigmart]

I have e-mailed several yacht part suppliers, not chandlers, for information/support. To date none of them have responded.

Really impressive service huh.

Martin

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[ashanta]

Re: Didn\'t you guess

Curry's and Dixons are the same, they include PC world and The Link. Comet is part of the Kingfisher group which includes Woolies, super drug and previously B&Q. Both organisations have competed to see who's Boss would get his Knighthood first.
Kalms and Mulachy. Both sold Amstrad products in the 80's and helped Alan Sugar get his.
All part of this particular London community?

Of course there's no margin to be made in chandlery. If there was these bigger players would be involved.
Personally I like some of the Mail order companies who have been very responsive and flexible to my needs over the years. A difficult market and one that I wouldn't like to rely on as an income stream.
Regards.

Peter.

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[Fill]

If you can join the Moody Owners Association then the pantomime chandlers (thanks Peppermint - I liked that) will give you a 10% discount on many (not all) items at the store at Moody's.

We were quoted (incorrectly as it turned out) about £100 for a garmin gps 12 some while ago by this outfit, and although they pointed out that it should have been £110 they honoured their original mistake.

I agree it does depend on who you talk to, I had been well treated by a mature possibly senior assistant at a certain fairly super store who wouldn't offer a discount but insisted - with a broad wink- that I must have got the lines and warps out of the £5 box rather than the £20 box.

However, when I was fitting out a brand new boat a "Kevin" at the same store was quite unpleasant when I suggested a discount would be nice. His line was "why should I?" I didn't bother telling him it was so I wouldn't go somewhere else with my pennies (what am I saying ? pounds) - which I did.

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[pvb]

Don\'t knock the Kevins....

Don't knock the Kevins of this world. Kev at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtbits.co.uk>YachtBits</A> runs a good website offering some keen prices. As an example, when you include carriage, Kev's price for the ST1000+ autopilot is lower than the price quoted by MES.

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[EdEssery]

Re: 2) Loyalty - Shamrock Chandlery runs an excellent Boat Owners Club - simply fill in a form and get a card and quote the number on the card every time you make a purchase. In December each year you get a percentage of your expenditure over the past year back in the form of a voucher you can use for future purchases. If your annual expenditure is over £1000, the rebate is 12.5% so if you had spent all that £5000 in Shamrock Chandlery, you would have received a voucher worth £625 in December along with a detailed schedule of every last item you had bought. Sounds like a loyalty scheme to me! It has paid for all my anti-fouling for the past two seasons.

Ed

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[Gunfleet]

There are funny things in the chandlery business. I bought a couple of Antal 2 speed winches this winter. My local chandlery couldn't get them wholesale for the price Alladin's cave were selling them for. It wasn't for want of trying - they wanted to meet the price. Wierd.

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[peterb]

Re: John Lewis

Have you ever thought that "never knowingly undersold" or any similar guarantee is really a licence to pitch your prices as high as you like? Translated, it could mean "I'll put my price high, and if you spot it then I'll cut it back to the normal level elsewhere." To me, the price guarantee that makes sense is the one that penalises the shop if it isn't the lowest; like B&Q, where if you can find it lower elsewhere they'll give you it at that price minus another 10%.

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[Ripper]

The simple answer is that we compete by keeping our prices low and our overheads as tight as possible - i.e. we both still do full time jobs so the business isn't trying to support us!! In terms of size even the big boys are little minnows in comparison to, say, Tesco or even Alldays or Forbuoys (they still going??). Yachting really is a tiny industry and one of the problems we all have is that we have to carry huge stock levels as a ratio of turnover - you think Antifouling is expensive?? - heck so do we and we have 2 - 300 cans of the stuff and we have to pray we can sell it all!!

The other thing to remember is that when we give you a small 10% discount we could actually be giving up 50% of our profit!!

As an example, the other day we sold a fridge unit (RRP £350) for £299 (to compete with one of the Mail order guys). Net result? 4 Phone calls, a fax, Delivery charges, all for £15 profit (on a £300 sale!).

The benefit? A satisfief customer who, hopefully, will come back!

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[Ripper]

Oh yes!!

And here's another interesting factet!!

Marine based Chandleries are charged a fortune per square footage and have to pay a percentage of their profits to the Marina owners so their cost are actually pretty high!! So high that Aladins cave pulled out of Gosport altogether.

That's me done I think.

Happy shopping.

By the way we're Arthur's in Gosport. We have a web site but it's still in build mode at the moment - not enough hours in the day!!

mike

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[halcyon]

Cause there's plenty of hours in a day Mike, that's why I'm still sitting here at the computor finishing new artwork and pcb's for the new product range.

Brian

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[Ripper]

Glad I'm not the only one who burns the midnight oil!!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Mike

 

[StephenSails]

Speaking from an internet chandlers point of view I can sympathise with you, I have been running my business for 5 years but there is some very cloak and dagger stuff which goes on in the industry that I cant get to the bottom of. I advertised a certain product in my advert in Sailing Today and the next month my supplier was chatting to me saying he had complaints from some of the better known outlets ( I wonder who they might be!) about my pricing.

With regards to pricing, I quit often see rants here and in other forums and I find it quite frustrating sitting in my dark little office with the flexibility to do package prices for people like yourself but unable to afford the advertising - see the problem? Boating stuff is not cheap even at trade. I suspect that if you are trying to buy stuff from a shop and it is a product you have seen them advertising in the magazine then that is probably at the lowest price they can do it, certainly that is how I advertise to gain maximum market penetration.

As for customer service I suspect that they are not very well paid and probably resent being stuck in a busy chandlery at the weekend.

<hr width=100% size=1>Visit my discount online chandlery and news site
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtinguniverse.com>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com</A>

 

[dickh]

I buy my packs of gloves from my local trade car accessory place where I also buy all my filters, oil etc for my boat and car - not sure whether they are "Surgical Quality" - I doubt it. Also for about £3/pack 100.

<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[dickh]

Our local chandlery - Foxes in Ipswich will often match prices from other chandleries and it always pays to ask when negotiating a big purchase - and they have their own Loyalty card with discount, depending on yearly spend.

<hr width=100% size=1>dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Aja]

Must admit I have just excellent service from Mailspeed marine.

My local chandler (Hulley Marine) gives me 10% discount on all my purchases as my boat is in the same yard.

Loyalty does count IMO

Donald

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[Aeolus_IV]

Same here - bought 2 x Antal 2 speed self tailing winches at Alladin's for a price I couldn't match elsewhere - just lucky I guess, they were the last on the shelf.

Jeff.

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[Grehan]

Europe

It seems to me that UK chandlery prices and suppliers are actually the most competitive in Europe, and even (so I'm told) compared with the US as well.

. . . across the board, excluding exceptions, etc etc . . .

I raise this distinct impression based on seeking quotes for about £1,500 worth of stuff a month ago, from France and from the U.S, and from the UK* - the cheapest by a significant margin.

Anyone care to comment on this?
Any European countries cheaper? (Holland for example - I understand Dutch folk always negotiate a discount on no matter what . .)


*BTW Excellent responses from Mailspeed Marine and Seamark Nunn. Nothing from Compass, nor Force 4, but I've bought from both in the past and found them ok.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=purple>Grehan ::<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.greyfox.ukhq.co.uk/index_grehan.htm> www.greyfox.ukhq.co.uk</A>