Those are loans to his customers, not to him.

Understood, but not that simple. They’re loans to his customers for work that he performs. Why are customers of more reputable builders able to acquire financing with a higher degree of success than Mr Ostlund’s customers? Our friend at Shasta said that despite the poor market, “we’re finding there are people who still want to buy pools.”

Shasta…Doesn’t sound like "thriving" to me.

In the traditionally understood sense of year to year sales, you’re right. In terms of market share, in a crumbling market, I believe I’m right. It’s all relative, I suppose.

“Financing is a big part of it… The entire market is off…”

Absolutely. No argument there. It’s hurt everyone. Lots of small guys have gone out of business. What’s different, at least to me, is that Riviera isnt a small guy. Riviera is an outfit that rapidly (and irresponsibly) expanded into the teeth of a well established housing downturn. Mr Ostlund paid the Dbacks a million dollars to attract business (I’m sure that it did, btw), despite having no idea whether it would help him sell more pools!

He doesn’t have any hard facts or figures to indicate if his $1 million investment will pay off. “It was more a gut feeling than anything else,” Ostlund said.

your apparent desire to gloat over Riviera’s failure is blinding you to what appear to be widely-accepted facts. Was he bullshitting? Probably.

Probably? Probably? lol. The Republic calls in September, wants to know how the Dbacks’ sponsorship is going. He says it’s a really tough time in the industry, but his business is up. As his payroll has plummeted from something like 100 to 10 people? And you’re willing to acknowledge he’s probably bullshitting. Um. Okay :-).

But the worst thing any company can do is admit they’re in trouble: that’s a sure-fire way to guarantee you go down the tubes.

Actually, just the opposite is true. It’s this superficial, bullshitting culture of misleading success (ie not accounting for potential risks and real trouble) that’s led to today’s encompassing economic dilemma: EnRon, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Bros. The same slippery Madison Ave values pervade government, education, health care, and have trickled down to ordinary citizens. Ron Ostlund is a product of that.
 
I dont mean to gloat over his failure, but merely to point it out when he and others are pussyfooting around it. I dont take pleasure from people losing their jobs or from disillusioned paying customers. And I totally agree times are very tough. I just refuse to see him as primarily a victim of sudden circumstance here. He’s as responsible for the decline of his company as he was for it’s rise, and any contrary notion reeks of that same purposeful superficiality, imo.

(title asterisk: hey, at least I got in a stilted Audrey Hepburn reference)