Word: boatful
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...voting booth. She proposed to raise the value-added tax in 2006, and, more saliently, chose as her prospective finance minister a Heidelberg professor associated with the flat tax, a fixed-rate income tax. According to some commentators, this may have been the innovation which sank Merkels boat. On the other hand, it was apparent throughout the campaign that the changes Merkel represented were of style rather than substance. Even within the CDU, her proposals generated controversy, casting uncertainty on future labor reforms. Further, her liberalism was circumscribed, so that her immigration policy, for instance, remained protectionist. The pains that...
...help promote fishing and thus boat sales, Jacobs bought Operation Bass, which ran many of those low-paying tournaments. But it too was struggling. He realized that since more than 50 million people fished, they didn't define a market subset. They were the market. "This group of people buys everything. And they're loyal. A bell went off in my head," says Jacobs. Folks who bought Strike King lures also bought tons of cereal and candy. And not only did they buy that stuff, but they could identify with pro fishermen...
...moved the weigh-ins to Wal-Mart parking lots under a huge tent, where the sponsors were waiting with all kinds of kid-friendly entertainment. It was a sensation, so much so that the championship event had to move to a bigger venue. On the water, Jacobs outfitted each boat like a NASCAR racer, to the point where the outfit became unofficially known as BASSCAR...
Jacobs isn't the only guy trying to sell boats. In Springfield, Mo., another tournament bass-fishing legend, Johnny Morris, had established a mail-order company called Bass Pro to sell lures. Then, in 1978, Morris started a company called Tracker Marine that sold fully rigged bass boats (boat, motor, range finder, trolling motor, trailer, etc.) on a one-stop basis. Morris had opened a retail store on the site principally to give fishermen something to do when they came to Springfield to pick up their boats. In 1981, Morris changed outdoor retailing by establishing a combination sporting-goods store...
...growth attracts company, and Bass Pro's closest rival is Cabela's, which went public last year. Stock-market analysts are already nervous that the two companies are growing so fast that they will begin to clash directly, although, as Hagale says, it's a big country. The boat business doesn't have clear sailing either. Industry leader Brunswick is on a vertical-integration tear, a strategy that brought another firm, Outboard Marine, into bankruptcy. Genmar stepped in to feed on the remains, but Jacobs warns that a further shakeout looms in a market that is stagnant at about...