Boat Show Season

Well its that time of year folks, boat show season. The season where we all shake the winter blues away a bit and start dreaming of playing with our water toys. The boat show is the perfect place to do this. You can see many models, browse tons of accessories and generally mingle with like mind folks. Sound great right?

Well, not this year.

Oh the shows will be there, but there will be less dealers attending because they simply can't afford to. The shows will be smaller with less to see.

The good news is the powers that be moved the NY Boat show to a more traditional and realistic attendance date. Not like last year where some bean counter said "lets hold it two weeks before Christmas, during the worst economic climate in history". We all know that was a total failure but I am happy to say attendance was way up this year (how could it not) and some of the last leftover inventory was being sold by many dealers. A good start if you ask me.

In our area, Atlantic City is the next critical show. Unfortunately the show will be HALF the size of last year (which was half the size of the previous year) because most dealers who survived 2009 simply can't afford to attend the show. I am one of those dealers making that decision. This also means you will see less boats limiting your potential choices(do you see a reoccurring theme here yet?).

Yep, less boats to see making that $8.00 beer easy to finish in one walk thru. You leave unfulfilled and looking to find another venue in which to spend the remainder of the day instead of thinking of adding to your passion. Is this any way to get excited about playing with our water toys? I think not, and I feel our industry needs to make some serious changes to fix this.

What I am hoping happens as a result of all this is the companies wake up, join us in the real world and make the shows manufacturer sponsored like they do with the NY Auto Show. This would take the enormous pressure off the dealers to outlay the limited cash flow they have renting space and allow them to sell boats with the customer in mind, not the fact they have to move old inventory.

What I want to see is the companies responsible for renting boat show space.

They in turn would bring one of every model they make and the booth would be staffed by local dealers. Based on your boating area zip code, you would be assigned to deal with the dealer from that area (we all have a territory in our contracts that no one seems to honor) and make a deal based upon the boat you want, not one that happens to be in a particular dealers inventory.

That would allow the local dealer the opportunity to continue to grow the relationship with you on parts and service. If something does happen to your boat, it would be good to know the dealer knows you, the boat and can handle your problem in a reasonable time because they service that boat and area. If you buy a boat from a dealer in NY but you boat in Barnegat Bay you loose the priority approach when it comes time for service. That is where the trouble in our industry hits hard. Boats are not made by God and the do break. That's why it is important to deal with a dealer WHERE YOU BOAT. Do you see my point?

I would like to hear from you on this and am opening up the Blog to responses. I am interested to hear what you think with pithy comments or questions. Lemme know...

Joe Cap