espite the positive note that a stay-at-home mood might bring to the industry, many retailers still are carrying memories of last year’s lackluster sales season. This year, many aboveground-pool retailers scaled back on orders and will try to sell last year’s leftovers before taking on too much new stock.

For some, this has meant cutting prices to move product out the door. One dealer, for example, recently advertised a “blow-out sale” on its Web site, selling a $2,300 pool for $1,500 and noting that there were “only 93 left.”

That’s exactly the kind of move retailers such as Craig Lowery, general manager of Blue Dolphin Pools in Decatur, Ala., don’t want to see in an already competitive market. Retailers who did well in 2001, or who carefully planned their inventory ordering, will have a tougher time competing against those who are dumping excess product onto the market at lower prices just to get rid of it, says Lowery

Others are simply cutting back their orders. This season, Steve Bishop, president of Pools & Spas A Go-Go in Detroit, ordered only 70 percent of what he usually needs. “I’m being conservative,” he says. “I think we’ll have a good year, but I’m not betting my inventory on it. I’d rather run out than have extra. I can always reorder.”

Some retailers, however, are willing to gamble. John Silvas says he’s ordered 25 percent more product this season than he sold during a “flat” 2001. “We’re gearing up,” says Silvas, president of PC Pools in Libertyville, Ill. “If the economy turns into good news for us, we’ll be stocked.”

While consumers are expected to buy product in 2002, they might not spend as much as in nonrecession years, say retailers. Lowery is among those who expect lower- and mid-range pools to be more in line with people’s pocketbooks this season. “I’d love to sell more of the high-end, $10,000 and up stuff,” he says. “But I just don’t see it happening.”

Retailers also expect soft-sided pools to continue siphoning more of the overall market from the stalwart metal-sided units.