owner
ford owns mazda
info?
I’m sure GM would like to know that stat.
vanishing
I make a regular habit of doing buisness with the
ones that do buisness with me. I don’t know any
asian language, but do speak some German. As sad as it may sound, I think a good depresion would
screw this country’s head back on. Is the US really so dependant on the ’ global economy’?
Just Watched Supersize! Last Weekend
And maybe it sensitized me to this whole issue, but something I saw the other day kind of drove it home. There is a projection that the next generation’s life expectancy is lower due to the increase in poor diet and excercise habits. What would a growing population that is largely inactive do with a kayak?
I can see how these inactive people will buy pills, plastic surgery, or may even some excercise equipment that promises a “buff” body in a few weeks with just minutes a day of excercise. Some way to cheat their way out.
I can even imagine that after viewing some car ads, they are taken by how cool kayaks look, so they buy a cheap kayak at Guylan’s while at the mall. The kayak soon finds it’s way to the pile of unused exercise equipment, as it requires a commitment to excercise and an active lifestyle.
A shrinking market?
Lou
dependant on global economy ??
have you any idea just how many components of our military weapons systems are made offshore ?? - SCARY!!!
Chicago shops…
– Last Updated: Mar-19-05 10:55 AM EST –
Well, I'm not sure how Ralph is doing down at the Canoe Base, but Offshore's doing pretty well. Going off the first 2.5 months of this year, we're on track to surpass our previous annual record in terms of units sold (a nice little surprise bounce from Canoecopia helped; we sold as many boats via cellphone from Madison last weekend as we did in the store). Now if spring would ever actually get here...
While it's not neccarily true in all markets, there's a trend (in Chicago at least) for the big boxes to pull back or completely out of paddlesports. I was at the Dick's/former Galyans in Schaumburg a week ago, and the selection there is a few older Bell's leftover from Galyans and a number of cheap plastic boats. What we were hearing (and I'm sure this is true for Ralph as well) is that people got tired of going to look at boats at a Big Box and finding a nice but not terrible knowledgeable high school kid working the paddlesports section. The numbers we were hearing back from the reps seemed to bear this out.
mobrien
I bought my first yak, PFD, car rack, paddles, etc. from Offshore. It is a great shop. I ordered my second from Ralph because he had a brand that I was interested in that I had seen at Canoecopia. I am very happy to hear how well you are doing. I also drove to Dick’s during lunch hour this week. There was no one in the kayak section, the kayaks were of an extremely basic nature, and there was a poor selection.
Can you or Fritz please let me know when you get the WS Tsunami 140 in stock? My wife really wants to take a good look at it.
Thanks for supporting paddle sports in our area and maintaining a high quality shop with a great selection of boats.
shops
Unfortunately, for the retailer, the mark up on quality kayak gear and boats is not very much. This makes it difficult for the retailer to have sales that will draw in customers. With apparel such as Patagonia the mark up is high enough for the retailer to have a sale that will impress the consumer, pay for the advertising, allow repurchase of stock and draw in costumers while still breaking even. Not the case with kayak gear. While stores such as REI still carry some technical gear there floor space is primarily clothing.
Many in kayak retail have limped along for years and at a certain point decide it is no longer worth it. When they try to sell their business they find their profit margin is so low no one is going to buy it from them. They let their lease run out, sell the gear and move on.
Being a blue collar worker and small business owner (I consider small business blue collar work). I find it a bit funny at how many people are now concerned about out sourcing now that it is taking away from white collar jobs. Bookkeeping, accounting, medical transcription, data processing, information processing, computer software development are and will be leaving the country. The multi nationals have spoken and we have agreed.
not to beat it to death, but -
– Last Updated: Mar-22-05 8:20 AM EST –
our Cape Cod radio station had an ad on this past weekend for a shop holding a BIG pre-season sale - -
the shop's name is -
Kayaks, Pools, and Spas -
they also mentioned that they sell Weber grills -
i just hope the sales people knew the difference between a kayak and a Weber grill - - seeing a grill being paddled around Hyannis harbor - well, need i say more ??
Nah
There’re shops that sells kayaks, and there’re kayak shops.
Just like there’re shops that sell bikes and there’re bike shops.
No, Walden was financially sound
They had moved into a new manufacturing facility just over a year before the bank called in their note and were operating profitably. This is a case of a bank being incredibly short-sighted and destroying a viable business. In that regard, it’s truly sad.