Lazy Days RV Supercenter

[capn chris]

RV finance friend sent me a clipping stating that Lazy Days, the largest single-site RV dealer missed a payment of $8.1M. They're negotiating payment term w/holders. They recently laid off 200 people, leaving 500 in Seffner, FL. Yikes!

[richfaa]

November 18,2008 "The international banking crisis caught Beaudry RV Co. before it could finish paying off a $13.3 million debt, forcing the Tucson-based company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday" .... And so it goes.....

[rames14]

It will get worse before it gets better. The home sales crisis and auto crisis will have to get fixed first. Think about how many jobs each home and auto create. Homes create sales of building materials, construction, appliances, furnishings, paint, etc. Automakers are no longer vertically integrated. Hundreds/Thousands of suppliers provide components for each vehicle made. Then there are the tool shops, machine tool vendors, etc. I am curious how far this will drop before it's done. I originally targeted 2013 for retirement, but that has gone out the window.

[dersequim]

I posted this before somewhere: Give us the money and it WILL get in the system FASTER. I'm not talking about the $600 JOKE! Why do they give the money to the SAME PEOPLE WHO CREATED THE MESS?
Why give it to the BIG 3, so they can continue to build cars NOBODY is BUYING? Give it to ME so I can BUY THE CAR!! Pay off the Mortgage!
Pay off the credit Card! ETC, ETC!

BTW: This is an OPINION! I don't have a MTG and we only use the Credit Card to earn points, pay-off each month.

[rps]

From The Tampa Bay Business Journal:

In a move to preserve cash amid a downturn in the market for recreational vehicles, Lazy Days RV Center Inc. said it elected not to make an interest payment due to holders of its senior notes.

The company plans to talk with the note-holders to restructure its long-term debt to improve liquidity or modify its requirements for liquidity, a release from Lazydays said.

Lazydays said it has a 30-day grace period before the failure to pay interest becomes an event of default. The company said it has talked to its lenders about the plan, and they’ve agreed to honor their credit agreements with the company. Lazydays currently is in compliance with all covenants associated with its lenders, the release said.

The outstanding balance on the senior notes as of Sept. 30 was $138.7 million, Lazydays said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC filing showed that for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, Lazydays reported a net loss of $6.3 million, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2007. Revenue for the just-ended quarter was $90.1 million, a 41 percent drop from revenue of $152.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

For the first nine months of 2008, Lazydays reported a net loss of $4.1 million on revenue of $450.9 million. The company had net income of $424,783 on revenue of $594.6 million in the year-earlier period.

Lazydays said in the release that it had taken a number of steps to cut its operating costs in response to the persistent downturn in the RV industry and the overall economy. Those measures included reducing employee headcount by 200 people, or 30 percent, as well as eliminating all non-essential spending and implementing efficient purchasing processes across the business. Those measures had a positive impact on cash flow, the release said.

Lazydays, based in Seffner, is the largest single-site dealer of recreational vehicles in the United States. The company is privately owned but files reports with the SEC stemming from its May 2004 issuance of $152 million in public bonds as part of the transaction in which Bruckmann Rossser Sherrill & Co. LLC purchased majority control

[HughM]

As hard as it is to believe in the St. Pete Times it stated that Lazy Days sells 1 out of every nine motorhomes in the U.S. They sell a lot of RV's.
Hugh

[richfaa]

You know when you think hard about what dersequim posted it makes sense and would probably work better than all the bailouts. Do all the bailouts and the ordinary folks still do not have the money to buy anything, have bad credit, etc. The consumer needs the money to buy cars and houses and consumer goods thereby creating jobs for folks who make cars and build homes and produce consumer goods. Give that 700 billion to Mary and Joe ordinary. Why not revitalize the economy from the bottom up. So we bailout the big three???Who is going to buy the cars...what changed??? How does bailing out banks that are not lending money to folks who have failed mortgages or Auto companies who are not selling cars because folks are out of work fix the economy or create jobs???

[Jim Jarvis]

Bailing out the consumer would be as pointless as giving the money to the corporations. You would simply enable the very people who racked up a ton of debt to do the same all over again. And do it on your dime. The corporations AND the consumer BOTH have to change old habits. The corporations didn't get into this mess all by themselves. Spending like there is no tomorrow must reach it's final conclusion and I'm afraid tomorrow has arrived.

[richfaa]

Humm. Our system and Canada's as well is built on the ability to incur debt. How many of us would be able to afford a house, car, truck, camper or any big dollar item if we could not incur debt. Now not everybody is as smart as some of us and get into trouble by incurring to much debt and most of them do it based on the "expert" advise of "Financial experts" and some of them were not smart enough, like others, to know that they were being miss led. Example.I am inclined to beleive what my doctor or doctors tell me what is wrong with me because I am not a medical expert. Could the problem be lack of oversight and control in the finanical system. Is it fair or accurate to put the blame on the individual instead of the system that caused the problem??? That individual who maxed out the credit card may not have done that IF they had not got a unsolicited credit card in the mail. The individual who purchased a home they could not afford may not have done that IF the banker who approved the loan was better regulated. Something to think about.

[Delaine and Lindy]

We need to go back to the way our Fathers and Mothers lived and thats called "LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS". I remember very well how I was raised, we lived on a Farm and the first house my Dad ever owned, well it was very small, you couldn't spank a cat in that house, but we were happy. Take a look at some of the houses today, they are huge and so much waste and most couldn't afford it. Its the Look at me house. Credit will kill you, look whats happening our country is drowning in credit. Its so easy to get credit and a lot of people just can't handle it. But yesterday the Big 3 in congress with their hands out. What was wrong with that picture. Its called living above their means, its time we force our Government to live within their means. Everybody doesn't deserve credit. We have been there and done that with our Kids, there comes a time I had to tell them NO. Believe me I bailed him out several times and you know what the problem was, Credit Cards and Credit. I don't blame the C/C companys, its a individual problem. There is going to be a lot of pain in this country, we may as well suck it up and quit blaming everybody else. Someone has to stand up and say NO MORE, get your house in order or your gone. Its breaking my heart to see GM go thru this and will probably have to pull the 5th wheel back home and park it on the river. Toyota and Nissian, or Honda doesn't make a Truck that can handle my 5er. More Stimlus is not the answer, remember that check we got a few months back, it didn't do anything except make the problem worse. Housing situation, what a joke. Those inflated house prices, it couldn't last it had to go bust. Folks its time to hunker down and fix this problem. We have caused this problem and we can fix the problem. GBY.....

[richfaa]

The thing is most of us live beyond our means and our system tells us that is the right thing to do in fact our finanical system is dependent that we do. ...Example..If every one of our debts were called due today..Mortages, Car/truck payments, Camper payments Credit card payments..do you have the cash money to pay them off..do your assets exceed your liabilities. If not you are by definition living beyond your means. The number one thing on most list that you are living beyond your means is..."do not have a budget" Yet on this very forum there are folks who say this is not important...spend, life is to short, don't worry about it.. Our system ecourages us to live beyond our means yet there is resistence to change or provide some control in the system. The talk on the finanical channels and the hearings on the bailouts are very interesting and educational. Everything is too easy and there is little control..why do we, and I mean us, resist change.

[DarMar]

To a point Rich you are correct "most of them do it based on the expert advice of Financial experts", but when it comes to credit card debt the consumer needs to stand up and take ownership of that situation. So also do the Big 3 and their executives and so does anyone in our countries that receives bloated salaries. The one thing that stands out from the execs appearing before your congress was when asked to show by way of raising your hand to indicate which execs arrived there by flying commercial, none of those execs could raise theirs hands. So, no matter how bad things are we have not changed our habits. Yesterday one our news channels interviewed the head of the CAW union and when asked if they were willing to discuss some concessions in order to make things work and the answer was basically a flat out no without any hesitation!!! A couple of days ago I came out in support of outright bailing out the Big 3 but now it is clear to see you can throw money at them but it won't change a thing. In my mind nobody deserves to be paid $75.00 an hour and nobody deserves millions in performance bonuses. Maybe it's time to let the auto industry bottom out (bankruptcy) breaking all those executive pay contracts, breaking all those union contracts, and rebuild an industry with new people and wage scales that allow us to move forward and be competitive on the world market. Something else to think about.

[Delaine and Lindy]

Well we may be living beyond our means but fact is we have more asset than we do debt. However assets aren't any good when nobody can afford to buy because they have ruined their credit. I'm just saying CREDIT will kill you unless you can control your wants and needs. Our 5th wheel isn't paid for but the Car and Truck is and if things don't implode competely in Nov we will have very little bills other than utilities etc. We owe a lot less now than we did 4 years, at that time we owned two houses, and sold them both, then we done it again we build another house. I said I wouldn't own another house but we did. Was it a good idea, well I don't think so but we have to deal with it. And we will.

Anyway we are going to lunch with Chris and Dave (CanDo) and I'm sure we can come up with a sure fix for everything. If not at least we want be hungry. GBY....

[skypilot]

Just to add my 2 cents worth here -- when I was growing up I never saw anyone buy food with a credit card; this morning I stopped by the local grocery store to pick up some munchies for the office and two of 5 people in front of me paid for their purchases using a credit card -- not debit but credit. One of them was a worker in another office close to me so I asked her why -- because 'we get 3 percent back on all purchases!". I then asked (being nosey), and if she didn't mind answering, do they carry a balance on the card. Her reply which I think is paramount to this issue and rampant nation wide -- 'Yes we do. We want to pay it off every month but we've found we spend more when using the card than we do when we pay cash!". So, my big mouth, I asked "why do you do it then?" -- answer -- 3 Percent!!

Doesn't make financial sense but it is how some of us (and our kids) were trained. We see a savings but not the big picture. As Rich and Delaine/Lindy have both said, we need to start at the bottom and that also includes re-educating the nation on frugal, knowledgeable spending.

One last comment and then I'll sit back and read some more (and this is going to probably sound like a rant) -- What in the world were those 3 execs thinking? Here we are going to ask for money because we are broke -- maybe we ought to fly coach, have plans in place to ground extravegant frills (jet, limos, fancy meetings with food/drink), and show that we are sincere in cutting non-essentials to make the company viable. But no, they show up in private jets ($20,000 each - nonsense -- that probably didn't even pay for the fuel, lease payments, engine reserve, etc. and pilots salaries to taxi to take-off) and no plan on any personal sacrifice. It, in my mind, was a 'me take any responsibility -- not going to happen' moment for all of the American public to see. Many in this office who were in favor of the bail-out yesterday are adamently opposed today.

Off the soap-box. Thanks for letting me voice my opinion. Safe travels to all

[richfaa]

When we refinanced our home a few years ago for a much lower interest rate the bank did not believe we had listed all our debts the reason being that our assets exceeded our liabilities and that was just not normal. We had to prove we were not hiding debt. It is significant that we, just ordinary folks, can see and understand the many problems but our lawmakers can not???? or don't want to. Both my parents lived through the great depression and my Dad never owned a credit card. My Mother at about age 60 got a bank credit card and my Dad had a fit. How, he said, can you spend money you do not have..What a simple solution???

[dersequim]

Rich, A few years back my son needed Nancy and I to Co-sign a small note for a loan. We submitted our info and Steve called me to tell me that the agent said,"Either this info is false or your parents are in the "Witness Protection Program". NOBODY has credit references like that these days!" We loaned him the money and laughed all the way to the !!!!!

I am thrilled about the discussion that my comment started. Nancy and I learned from our parent's mistakes. My dad had a good paying job, but we were always going to the bank for loans. Never did figure out where the money went???? Nancy's parents were so frugel that it was unbelievable. We found a HAPPY medium and are reaping the rewards now.
The economy we are experiencing is an outgrowth of the "ME" attitude: I WANT IT, You make money giving it to ME, therefore fullfilling your ME!
"Then the WE have to pay the price to clean it up!"

[tbhd2]

Without getting too political, the problem was created by ourselves. If everyone purchased American made products, everyone would have jobs and there wouldn't be layoffs and plant closings. I love how the wages of the auto workers keeps growing larger by the day. Two days ago it was 73 dollars an hour and now it's up to 75. I worked in the auto industry for over 40 years and I don't remember making that much or anything near that amount. Maybe there's some other retired auto workers out there that remember making that much. Dunno.

[richfaa]

I would like to see a level playing field. products made in a foreign country are ok as long as products made in this country have a fair opportunity to be sold in foreign countries. A global economy is not a bad thing and we live and trade in a global economy. We need to accept that we must be competitive in a global economy and restructure our system to be competitive. We will be swallowed up if we do not do that.

[capn chris]

"It's not your salary that makes you rich, it's your spending habits."
--Charles A. Jaffe