West Marine has suffered from Private Equity firms that buy businesses and then take the profits and sell it off. About a year ago they were in bankruptcy proceedings when an agreement was reached with the Private Equity firm that owned WM, where the firm would provide a cash infusion. The PE firm has backing from a French firm according to the article linked below. No connection to any Chinese firm was mentioned in the article.
WM has really increased the frequency of it sales and seems to be trying to drive business back to the stores. They are also doing a lot drop shipping, i.e., taking orders and having the manufacturer ship from their warehouse. This is not an uncommon practice for businesses for items that inventory costs are high and turn over low. In the past year I've purchased a couple of Lewmar products through West, in both cases the items were drop shipped with very good delivery times, 2 or 3 days.
Prices at WM are sometimes lower than anywhere else, a Lewmar hatch I purchased was cheaper than anywhere else, including Defender. On the other hand, I often find Defender to be less expensive than my WM Pro account price.
Another example of the demise of a quality speciality equipment store, is Eastern Mountain Sports. EMS when from a well respected and well staffed outdoor equipment provider, rivaling REI. They were bought out by a PE firm and now they are a mediocre outdoor clothing store with a smattering of quality camping, climbing, and kayaking, etc inventory.
Just search for West Marine Bankruptcy to find more articles.
