WHAT'S THE PRICE???

Ever wonder how we price the eclectic mix of boat gear that shows up at our front door on a daily basis? It's really quite simple. I rely on a 50 year back log of refitting and restoring boats of all sizes and shapes. Most recently I've been re-doing all systems on a Down East 38' sloop. I'm in and out of all the other marine stores in my area and have hired out the wiring and installation of a Yanmar diesel engine. Recently I needed a pair of stainless hatch hinges. 100's have gone thru my store @ $15.00 to $30.00 a pair. I was a bit shocked when the owner of another store handed me a bill for $115.00 for a new pair of hinges made in China. They didn't even fit. I had to shorten the throw and re-drill the pin holes. You would think in a recession the marine industry would lower their prices? THEY DON'T! I was blown away when I received the bill for a spare raw water pump for my 53HP Yanmar diesel. My discounted price was $715.00. On close inspection I pretty much concluded the pump wasn't even new. I'm certain it was a "re-build" a very reputable company passed on to me as new? Pumps of this size in my store would be priced at around $50.00 if it was used and under $200.00 if it was new. In conversation with a marine store owner recently he told me that, "we've finally got our profit margins up where they belong and we're doing quite well." To me that means he's got a huge overhead and needs to charge about 5 times the cost of the actual item to keep his doors open. I know our prices are low and attractive. Several out of work professionals are making a fair living by buying our gear and equipment at our off-the-shelf prices and marking them up and selling them on e-bay. One store owner has a man in our store almost every morning picking out low priced marine items that he can re-sell in his store. We get tons of new items that sometimes we literally are able to steal. I had to purchase 1800 of those quality VHF radio antenna mounts (see former posting) that we are selling for $4.95 instead of the $27.00 catalog price at a big box store. It mortifies me when we have an item in our store that is over-priced. This happens and boy do you guys rip into me when it does. I'd much rather see items priced too low than too high. My son Josh is working his way into our business. With his laptop in seconds he's able to come up with the new price of an item so we will have some type of base to come up with a fair price. A short time ago we got a brand new pilot chair for a large Cabo sport fisher. Drawing on my half century of boat hardware knowledge I surmised that that chair would cost about $1500.00. A short time after pricing it@ $895.00 Josh came to me and said, "dad, I think you are a little low on the price of the pilot chair. I googled it and found that it is a $5800.00 chair!" What I'm trying to say here is that we are are doing everything we can to HOLD THE PRICING LINE. We have one store and it paid for in full. We work our butts off and keep our overhead at a minimum. When you purchase an item at Minneys, you truly get more BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!!! Note picture above is our approach to Aacapa island two weeks ago aboard my Down East 38' rescue boat...........