We’re Here to Stay

by Dennis DiPaolo

How’s business? There is so much concern in customers’ voices when they ask me, it really is quite touching. The honest answer is “just fine”. People are not literally throwing money at us like they did five years ago, but there are still many of you favoring us with your business. Pool supplies (our primary business) sell great when it’s hot and dry; like April, May, and July. They are slow while it’s cold and wet, like June. Expensive things were slow from last October until this April, then they picked up as people saw that the world was not coming to an end.

You may have noticed how we could barely keep enough hot tubs in stock during May, June and July. Marquis Spas took a long time to catch up with the demand once spas started selling again. As fast as we put them on the floor, they flew out the door! We have caught up again, and we are building up warehouse inventories so we don’t get caught short again. Hot tubs are not a luxury – they are a necessity for everyone with a stressful job or life.

So what’s the bottom line? We do not owe anyone any money for anything. In fact, Jeanne and I paid off the mortgage on the building on July tenth. Eleven years ago, when I started designing the new store, we were setting out on what seemed to be a very dangerous course. My friends who own other stores thought we were crazy. Today, we are running a very economical and energy-efficient operation that is cheap to maintain, and RENT FREE! Thank you to you all for your patronage, that allowed us to develop such a business. Our payback to you will continue to be excellent help that we can employ year-round; with ten, fifteen, and even twenty years working for us.

What’s our secret? We don’t have children (so we save a lot of money there); we don’t live high, and we’ve always been willing to invest our profits right back into the business. For instance, we are instituting a $25,000 upgrade to our computer systems in October and January, to speed up water lab testing and credit card processing. We will be even more efficient for you next summer. We pay our help well, but we don’t spend much on advertising. We watch our pennies.