How is business?

[Merlin]

Well since things are rough right now i just wanted to see how my fellow industry men and women are doing?
I'm not looking for the dirty details...... just want to know how business is.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Slow right now!   But sold one yesterday, after a weeks vacation.

 We have a fair the 2nd week of August should be interesting, with Jacuzzi HotSpring ,Sundance,Marquis,Cal-spa and D1  with a Beach Comber dealer parked outside cause they wont let anymore dealers in the Fair.    We usually do really well, this year I bet will be different.  

[Zep]

Jim....I hope you do better than expected.

I'm afraid for the economy right now.

My business (which is non-spa related) is down 15%.

What?....we had the 2nd largest bank failure in US history
last friday and that isn't even counting Freddie and Fannie this week?

I think it's possible we are in for some very hard economic times.

I think our banking and financial institutions are much
worse than is being let on and are teetering on collapse.

Sometimes the cure for economic collapse is war. (with Iran)

I hope I am wrong.

[James]

I was driving on I 5 in Redding, Ca (Home) the other day and saw a semi with a full load of Sundance Spas on it and I thought to myself "AhhhhaaaaaaAAAAHHHHH, so THAT’S what a full truck load of spas looks like!" I had not seen one of those awhile.

I’m sure those 12 tubs will be dropped off at 6 or seven Sundance dealers between Redding and Seattle.

1st 2 Qtrs of 08 we actually saw a sales dollars increase of over 12%! Of course with oil the way it is, our expenses have really gone up.

Late May early June we saw gas go to $4.70 a gallon and for the 1st time, we really felt a slow down.

Late June we had lightning strikes in the surrounding area that ignited 100s of fires.  The fires are still burning. The North Valley and Redding have been, at times, so smoky that you could not see a 1/2 mile down the highway. Most outdoor recreational activities have been cancelled ( Our city wide July 4th Fest will now be in Oct )

Needless to say the fires have had a HUGE impact on the business. I think overall we will have an up year in tubs but a down year in outdoor furniture. (Tropitone, Lloyd Flanders, Jarrah, Gensun)

We do have some good news:

Oil fell significantly and if the speculators are right, we'll be a $90 a barrel by Jan 09

The smoke is clearing.

President Bush will be in town tomorrow (1st presidential  visit in 45 years for Redding)

We've turned the corner?

[Summitman]

Hopefully we will all turn the corner soon, this economy and media stuff can get frustrating sometimes.  I really believe that the media has played a large role in the slowdown of the economy.  I think most people still have a good amount of money to spend but they just hedge back a little bit when they do spend.  We have sold the exact number of spas as we did last year but the type of spas people are buying are the lower series and dont have all the accessories.  I think some of this can be blamed on the consumer being cautious and I think salesman in general are more worried about offering more accessories and pricing the consumer out of buying the spa.  

On the other hand the pool customer and my customers that already have spas are still spending money like usual if not more.  People want to improve what they have to make their own backyard better.  This definetely wont be a year that I show an increase, but I have a great chance of staying at the same volume I had last year.

I think we all just need the election thing to get over with and hopefully at that point things will come around again.

[East_TX_Spa]

It's going good down here in East Texas.  We've sold 2 less units than at this time last year, and if I hadn't been off work for the better part of the last month, we'd probably be in high cotton.

Our profits are up significantly and we are in the process of implementing our new Evosus system which should help streamline our entire operation.  Our tablet PC's are in California being programmed (unless they're on fire) and all contracts, inventory, and service orders will be done in a paperless fashion.

Our new website is shaping up and we are getting a surprising number of sales through it.  Our online E-store is in development.  People are buying super high-end HotSpring Spas instead of our other brands.  I got a new hydrotherapy technician along with a new baby and a raise.

The Great Texas Balloon Race was last weekend and we had a blast.  Had 3 cases of Shiner Bock left over that we delved into a tad on Wednesday.  We're getting a VIP table for Chris Jones' fight this Friday at Horseshoe Casino over in Shreveport and then we'll go and eat steak at Jack Binion's.  Plus, this article was in the paper a couple of days ago....life is very good and we are very thankful:
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/07/15/07152008_Longview_No__13.html

Best wishes to almost everyone else out there!

Terminator

[Gary]

Life is good, today I go pick up my two new Polaris ATV's one for me and one for the wife.

[wewannahottub]

Well, as you know, I don't sell spas, I am a nurse.

Business in the health care industry is, well, always in a crunch due to a consistent nursing shortage.  Job security, yeah, I have it.  However, things do slow down in the summer time, for the most part.  From Sept. on, it gets nuts.  Flus, Pneumonias, lots of stuff.  Plus, people are back from their vacations.  So, time to pay attention to that cough, dark stool, certain ache,...  We had some baaaaddd pneumonias earlier this year.  Couldn't even tell you what bug caused it, because most times, people were on an antibiotic before hitting the hospital door.  So, it wiped out the bug, not the damage and the massive infiltrates.  

On a slightly different angle, I would love to know what our hospital's profits are--seems we always spend hundreds of thousands on a "new reporting ssystem", but take away extra shift incentives, bonuses for no call offs, or trying to woo new staff, or to retain the old.  Once, our hospital spent bookoo bucks on Hunter group to come and TELL us where we were losing money.  What did they do?  Squeeze the staff some more.  

Don't get me wrong, I love my job, though I fess up, I took a mental health day last night, my bad.  I have a great bunch of nurses I work with, and docs, too, and the best manager in the nursing world.  It always seems the administration could do more, maybe I am just looking at it from the armchair quarterback side...

Chrisi

[wewannahottub]

To add, I can't complain, I have a nice house, that we are making nice improvements on, 2 decent and paid off vehicles, food on my table, friends, health, and 4 nice kids.  

[Merlin]

It's going good down here in East Texas.  We've sold 2 less units than at this time last year, and if I hadn't been off work for the better part of the last month, we'd probably be in high cotton.

Our profits are up significantly and we are in the process of implementing our new Evosus system which should help streamline our entire operation.  Our tablet PC's are in California being programmed (unless they're on fire) and all contracts, inventory, and service orders will be done in a paperless fashion.

Our new website is shaping up and we are getting a surprising number of sales through it.  Our online E-store is in development.  People are buying super high-end HotSpring Spas instead of our other brands.  I got a new hydrotherapy technician along with a new baby and a raise.

The Great Texas Balloon Race was last weekend and we had a blast.  Had 3 cases of Shiner Bock left over that we delved into a tad on Wednesday.  We're getting a VIP table for Chris Jones' fight this Friday at Horseshoe Casino over in Shreveport and then we'll go and eat steak at Jack Binion's.  Plus, this article was in the paper a couple of days ago....life is very good and we are very thankful:
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/07/15/07152008_Longview_No__13.html

Best wishes to almost everyone else out there!

Terminator

Need another Top Gunner in your store to help out??   ??

It's been record breaking slow here in Lancaster... but we are doing our best to keep a float! i wish we were at least in a different state... CA is BRUTAL right now

[BauerN]

Not too bad here in Western MT.

I talk to a lot of business owners around here - about half are on track with last year, about half are a little behind.

Seeing very little financing lately, a lot of check and credit card instead.

Traffic is way down in the store, but closing ratios are up, so it could be better or worse.

Kinda like Term said, high-end is selling well.  D1 closed up last year, so I only have one other high-end competitor in the immediate area, and I can't remember the last time I lost a head-to-head.  The lower-end stuff is getting passed over around here in the name of efficiency and poor service reputations.

The service end is all but booming around here.  Getting a lot of calls to repair old spas instead of remove them.

[Swell-Tub]

I'm not in the Spa business but we are hurting very bad. We need like 600 guys and have only 65. The union hall is empty and we have pulled travelers from NY, Florida, everywhere we can get them. We have a new hotel casino starting up and we have nobody to staff it. Some of the higher union guys are pulling in up to $200K with overtime. I have several on my crews that are making a six figure salary. In about 6 months we will be working our guys 6 - 10 hr shifts a week. All the trades are hurting on the strip.

The housing side of construction is another story. They have lost jobs in record numbers and the commercial trades have picked a lot of them up. We also have a lot who do not speak english very well and that causes safety issues. So cross my fingers I hope it stays busy until I retire.

Scott  8-)

[Zep]

whoa....thats good news because I thought I heard Vegas was really hurting

http://www.lvrj.com/business/25610394.html

[Chas]

Real slow. I am glad I have other irons in the fire. Though I will say that the tubs we are selling are the big ones, with lots of nice extras added on.

I took the boat out to the lake on Monday, and there were all of about a dozen boats out - I'm sure the price of gas is keeping them home. I felt kind of funny because I filled the boat up a month ago when the gas was much lower, and we only burned about five gallons this trip out. About half a day wakeboarding. But as I go to fill it back up again, and put gas in the truck....


 8-)

[Swell-Tub]

whoa....thats good news because I thought I heard Vegas was really hurting

http://www.lvrj.com/business/25610394.html

A lot of areas are but commercial construction is on fire down here. New shopping centers, restaruants, hotels, casinos, remodels are all going like crazy right now. It is true that many tourists are not coming to Vegas right now because of the economy.

Scott