My dealer, Boat House & RV Center of Topeka, KS, has announced that tomorrow is their last day in business.

Good people there.

That sucks. Where to get service now? I suppose you could hire their techs outright as they probably will be out of a full time job for a while?

2-3 Bad years in a row, tough to handle for any business , Sorry to say they will not be the last to close this year. Important to let your dealer know if you need anything done, and book it now, It could make a difference between them closing or not.

Yeah, my boat is there for service as I speak, and I've not yet heard from them. Sometime between now and 4pm tomorrow I'll have it back, done or not, I guess.

They are predicting that 1 out of 5 car dealers will not make it through this recession. I imagine stats for boat dealers will be even worse.

I'd pick it up right now before the bank puts the padlock on the gate.

I don't think that'll happen. This is a branch location of a main dealer located on Grand Lake in OK. They're just closing this location (as I understand it) and moving the new inventory down there. I know the location manager and he'll take care of me. All the more reason I hate to see this happen.

Sounds like that doesn't apply in this case, but it is GREAT advice!

When the bank locked up Olympic, there were a few customer boats inside the service facility that were locked up with the new boats.

I noticed a sign on the window of the service facility for the owners to contact the bank directly so they could attempt to recover their boats.

The bank will not release them (or any other items/assets) until it is proven that they do not own them or do not have any fee's due from them.

That could take a while...

Great advice deepv!

Agreed, it's very good advice. This dealer is taking a somewhat opposite approach. They're spending today contacting everyone that has a boat there either for service or winter storage, and telling them they must be picked up by COB tomorrow - or they'll be left out in the ungated parking lot. Not good, but at least the bank won't have any control over peoples' boats.

In the case of this closing, I don't think the bank even has anything to do with it; it's just a business decision on the part of the owners of the main dealer to shut down this location.

I thought the Boat House in Topeka was tied to the one in Ponca City and Wichita? I didn't remember any ties with Grand.

Folks , this is going to happen to thousands of small businesses this fall.

The pest control company called today practically begging to get an appointment to come out and spray for bugs.

Pay attention to everybody you deal with, and figure out if they can lock up something like your boat or your car if they are a repair shop, or your clothes if they are a dry cleaner.

For example the good independent repair shops will probably be busy - auto especially, like CNY Boater - and aren't likely to suffer any more than the average downturn. But be careful of the big boys - you just can't tell how deep they are in...

Keep an eye on your storage facility if you have one. I drive by mine every day on my way to work. I think that they'll be all right as it is an old citrus packing house that has been in the family for decades was transformed into a storage facility with the replacement of the orange groves with rooftops and is paid for.

Think storage facilities will go under? Mine's outside lot is 90% full....

It depends on how leveraged they are and whether the lessees are paying their monthly storage fees. If they need 90% of the 90% full lot to pay on time to pay their mortgage they could be on the cusp, especially if a few of the lessees cannot pay their monthly rent.

Sorry, you're right. For some reason I was thinking Ponca was close to Grand. I think the Wichita location has been gone for some time, or is RV's only perhaps.