Well I finally caved in and bought a gas grill for WindSong. I have been kicking it around for a while; times are a little tight and my thinking has been that blowing cash on anything as extravagant as a GRILL (for the boat? Oh come on….) was just being plain dumb.
But, I just re-filled our propane tank for the house gas grill for the 2nd time in 6 weeks and it is already kicked. One of the things that I do year-round besides trying to use the boat (& drink beer) is barbecue. Why not combine that with the other two?
West Marine has a closeout sale on their 152SS propane grill; a little one (15″ diameter) that is manufactured for them by Magma. My local store had one as open-stock for $99.99. I wanted one in a box so they referred me to the Belmar, NJ location where (supposedly) they had three left.
Upon arriving at the Belmar store (actually a very nice West Marine – if there is such a thing – they cater to the commercial fishing fleet) I learned that they’ve never even heard on the 152SS, much less the special closeout sale. The day was starting to look like a cluster… but beings I was there already I wandered around the store, and lo & behold (over by the books/charts section) I spied a box wayyyyy up in the back, on a top shelf, covered in dust, the was emblazoned “West Marine PRO Grill.” The picture on the box showed a stainless steel gas grill.
After a brief and futile attempt to get a store-person to help me I got on my tip-toes and pulled the (very heavy) box down. No price tag. I took it the checkout counter. The conversation went something like this:
“Hi, I was wondering if you could scan this for a price-check…”
“Well Sure! Gee this is old, I don’t think I’ve ever seen on of these. It’s $76.”
“I’ll take it.”
No luck though finding a mounting bracket to fit it. What I did find was a stack of canvas grill covers that said “West Marine PRO Grill Cover & Tote”. Price tag said “Was $49.95, NOW $13.95″. I took it to the checkout counter. The conversation resumes:
“I think I’ll get this too…”
“Fine. Geez, that’s a closeout too. $1.22.”
“One dollar and twenty-two cents?”
“Yup. Sure you want it?”
“Here’s my card. Look me up at my Gettysburg Address.”
The West Marine store in Somers Point was very helpful in finding a mounting bracket for me. Call me crazy, but it really only cost $5.66.
We will refrain from commenting about the Toms River West Marine store. It is obvious that they only hire people who don’t play well with others.
SoNJSailor is a new contributor to PyratSail. Read more about him on our Contributors Page.
