Three days after Christmas, Fort Lauderdale resident Greg Manker visits West Marine’s new Fort Lauderdale superstore searching for spinning rods for his sons, Trey, 8, and Brady, 11. The boys — and their dad — are drawn to the electronics department’s bridge simulator instead. West Marine bills the store’s electronics selection as one of the largest in the world, and the simulator is part of an immersive, hands-on shopping experience. “The kids are enjoying it, obviously,” Manker says as one son spins the simulator wheel and the other tests a dummy VHF radio.
Manker appreciates the store’s scale and convenience. With roughly 35,000 products on the sales floor, he calls it “a Home Depot for fishermen.” Owner of three boats — a 47-foot Tiara, a 20-foot Mako and a 12-foot Nautica — he expects to spend a lot of time at the Fort Lauderdale location.
At 50,000 square feet, the Fort Lauderdale superstore opened officially on Dec. 7 and is the largest West Marine retail location in the United States. It is about twice the size of the company’s typical flagship stores and roughly five times the size of a standard outlet. The superstore stocks about twice the inventory of other flagship stores and five to seven times what a standard store carries. Only the company’s online catalog, which lists some 70,000 distinct products, offers deeper overall inventory.
Customers have responded positively. “This is probably the fifth time I’ve been here,” says Carmine Melchionna of Fort Lauderdale, owner of a 25-foot 1988 Rampage. “It’s a great store, pretty cool.” Melchionna adds that family members drove more than an hour to see the new location and that many visitors call it the biggest marine store they’ve seen.
International visitors notice the depth of selection as well. Dan Smith, a cruising sailor originally from Germany, is making last-minute purchases—chart lights, hatch supports and holding tank fittings—before cruising the Bahamas on his 47-foot Privilege catamaran. Smith says he has not seen a comparable marine retail experience in Europe and praises the store staff’s boating knowledge and helpfulness.
Store manager Demi Warner says the new superstore is double the size of the earlier Fort Lauderdale shop and that staffing has more than doubled to support the expanded offering: about 90 employees compared with 40 before. The layout and departments are designed to serve every kind of boater.
Key features for sailors include an on-site rigging shop stocked with roughly 1,800 pieces of hardware and technicians who build and install rigging. Powerboaters will find an engine parts counter that carries about twice the parts of any other West Marine location. Anglers benefit from a wide selection of rods, reels and lures tailored for saltwater fishing along South Florida’s coastline.
The superstore also includes plumbing, electrical and lighting supply departments, outboard motors, a megayacht chandlery, water-sports and kayaking sections, and an extensive apparel and footwear area occupying approximately 14,000 square feet. West Marine markets the electronics department as among the largest of its kind, featuring a megayacht-style flybridge built by Hargrave Yachts to showcase marine electronics and audio systems, along with two bridge simulators that allow customers to try chartplotters, radar and weather overlays in realistic conditions.
Interactive displays and touchscreen video kiosks help shoppers research products and compare options. Demonstrations show practical performance differences—for example, how pump sizes affect water removal rates or how underwater and cabin lighting appears in realistic settings. Customers like John Busha of Pembroke Pines, who used a video demonstration to select a fuel additive and fuel filters for an engine issue, and who previously purchased a Garmin 4210 plotter at the store. “The superstore has everything I could want or need,” he says.
West Marine CEO Geoff Eisenberg called the new superstore the result of years of listening to customers. Speaking at the grand opening, he emphasized the company’s long-term planning and commitment to the boater as its core customer. “We’ve been around a long time and we want to stay around a long time,” Eisenberg said, describing a deliberate strategy to invest for the future even amid uncertain economic conditions.
That strategy favors fewer, larger stores that serve broader areas and offer one-stop shopping, executives say. larger stores can make better use of real estate and reduce duplication across regions. West Marine has expanded in recent years with several flagship openings and continues to open larger-format locations in key boating markets, particularly in Florida, which remains the nation’s largest boating state.
The Fort Lauderdale superstore replaced a smaller West Marine that had served the community since 1992; another West Marine store in north Fort Lauderdale remains open. Warner notes the retailer’s strong local customer base, including members of nearby yacht clubs, and points to Broward County’s high number of registered pleasure boats as part of the reason West Marine felt comfortable investing in the market.
West Marine did not disclose the total investment in the superstore. Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles Corp. acquired and developed the 4.37-acre site, constructed the building and leased the land and facility to West Marine under an initial 15-year lease; the property, building and lease were listed for sale for $13 million in December.
Eisenberg says the company’s approach today echoes its early days: the same commitment to serving boaters but with greater sophistication and scale. “Our goal is to do a really good job of serving boaters,” he said, “and we’re just more sophisticated now.”
This article originally appeared in the Southern Waters section of the March issue.