Retail galaxy for boaters needs rethink

Retail giant West Marine began modestly in 1968, with founder Randy Repass selling nylon rope from a garage in Sunnyvale, CA. With niche providers serving fragmented boating interests, West Marine soon covered the USA in large one-stop shop stores. As a publicly traded company since its 1993 IPO, that ended in 2017 when it was acquired by a New York-based private equity fund, followed then by…