We have a dearth of chandleries and marine supply outlets here in the
Midwest, and the local West shop is minutes away and serves me well when I need
just
two more stainless fasteners of whatever sort, or a small resupply of Gougeon
epoxies, to finish up a job in progress. It also serves as a kind of IRL
catalog, which is nice because I don't like to make purchases sight unseen (too
often get the "perfect" item, in a dimension one inch too wide to work for me,
or needing more interior clearance than I'd anticipated, and such), and
because as any shop inventor/craftsperson knows, physically poking around in
bins of
items can be conducive to having a Plan B design come into your head that
trumps the idea you were getting supplies for. There's always something new
under the sun out there.
I like to try support local businesses, but if I'm in it for more than $10 or
$20, then I'll take my gleaned information to the internet. I get to avoid
sales tax (usually), and the shipping cost rarely eats up the savings on the
pricier items. You can modify your order to make the most of the shipping,
depending on whether the vendor is basing it on dollar value of the order or
weight of the goods.
Based on recommendations here, I just took delivery of a mainsail prefeeder,
from Annapolis Performance Sailing (www.apsltd.com). It's exactly what I
wanted, a great design improvement over what I'm replacing, though I don't have
the sense of having gotten a "bargain." You just have to decide what you want
and whether you're willing to pay for it. As it turns out, West Marine sells
the exact same prefeeder. It's $7 more than APS', but I had to pay APS $7
in shipping. So for a difference of $5 in Minnesota sales tax on the deal, it
didn't really matter whether I bought from West or off the net. And the
tradeoff for that $5 is that I'd have had the item immediately, if I'd needed
it.
I guess you have to be careful to do the research on each item purchased,
especially if it's a big-ticket number.
I'm searching mightily for a supply of teak or mahogany marine plywood to
replace my companionway boards, and though I'm still searching, I stumbled over
this boatbuilder's site and made a few impulse purchases of small items. Very
fast service, order processing with a "thank you," and very reasonable
pricing: Duckworks Boat Builders Supply -- www.duckworksbbs.com
Though I grew up farming and ranching, and learned to weld and machine and
fabricate equipment and supplies as needed, I do like to have the "just right,"
Bristol bright, stainless and strong fixtures and equipment for my boat, so
sometimes I pay more than I probably should for the genuine article. And
sometimes that's what makes it the genuine article.
I spent 30 years as a 3M spouse, yet for all the projects I've worked on in
that time, I rarely used 3M products if a reasonable alternative was available,
because I just felt so darn ripped off by the markup and the huge price
disparity between name-brand and store-brand. It's too bad, because 3M has a
ton
of marine products. But when you're buying 3M stuff through West Marine,
wow, button the flap on the wallet pocket.
Steven
M15 #324
Stillwater, MN
**************
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