oct-2017

166 167 This year, Lemke says that Happy Daze will move between 1,200 and 1,400 units, and unlike many other RV dealers, the company did not suffer a major setback during the Great Recession,which began in 2008.“We actuallymade money during the Recession,”he states. “We were fortunate enough to see that things were starting to slow down, so we started cutting back on our inventory and pared it down to a point that if it wasn’t selling in good times, it sure wasn’t HAPPY DAZE RV going to sell in bad times.We went into the Reces- sion with lots of cash and because we had cash,we were able to do things that other dealers couldn’t. Most of my dealer friends who went out of business lost their business because the banks quit financing them; my bank never did that.” In addition to working with the industry’s top manufacturers, Lemke believes that Happy Daze beats the competition because of his long-time staff.“All of our key employees have been with us