A Boater's World Employee Sends A Message

I work for one of those 130 stores. Ritz owed millions to Nikon, millions to Canon, Millions to Fuji. They used to make all their money on film processing, but now that everything is digital, people don't need to trust a camera store with their precious film, and just have their prints made for less at a big box store. The store associates, warehouse workers, and the CUSTOMERS are the ones who are really getting screwed by the close of Boater's World. David Ritz isn't selling his corporate jet or taking a pay cut. Jay Jolly, in charge of BW, is walking away with a huge severance package. Associates were given false hopes by corporate to stick it out because things would get better and we would be sold to someone who would keep the stores open, but with only 2 weeks from the date the sale of the stores was announced until the actual sale, there wasn't nearly enough time for investors to gather up the funding to buy! Three liquidators teamed up and bought us for 76 cents on the dollar, totaling around 35 million. The inventory in the warehouse and the stores is worth closer to $125 million, so you can see right there once the liquidator makes their first 35 million back, the rest is just gravy.

The liquidation sale at Boater's World is going to kill West Marine's spring and summer sales numbers, and I would expect a bankruptcy from them in the near future. A lot of vendors that Boater's World was dealing with will also go under as a result of this disaster. Thousands and thousands of people are losing their jobs, all at the hands of David Ritz and his staff and their poor business decisions. I worked at the store part time, and have a nice full time job. I won't miss the weekends I spent at the store, but I'll certainly miss my employee discount! Look for prices to drop in the near future.

PLEASE, if you come to the stores, don't ask us when prices will drop, when the final closing day will be, or ask us where you should shop now that your favorite store is closing. WE DON'T KNOW. And PLEASE don't ask us to mark anything down lower. We have NO CONTROL over pricing. All sales are final. Don't ask us to take something back -- WE CAN'T!