Aesthetics in a dive shop?

[divin'dog]

I do like a shop that has good lighting, is clean and neat, and not too cramped. I figure if they take pride in how their shop looks, they take pride in the other aspects of the business.

I do too. My LDS looks like a good working shop... neat and clean with things somewhat organized in the front where the gear is on display but also a little bit of a mess like any busy shop. Not a boutique by any stretch, but not a garage either. Repair area is neat and organized but definitely looks like a work bench. My experience with really neat and clean shops is that they are more interested in selling you something (you're just another customer) than wanting to get to know you better.

I know that renting space for a dive shop isn't cheap and I'm sure what space you do have needs to be utilized in the very best way. I just wish one of the local shops around here had such a space where divers could just come and "hang out" and get to know other divers. But maybe that's just not practical in these times.

My LDS doesn't have a place to "hang out" but any time I visit, I make sure I have enough time to stay a while. Seems that every time I visit, I end up staying at least an hr or more. Just when I'm ready to leave, in walks another diver that I know and guess what?... More stories and shootin' the bs. Sometimes it's only me and the owner, other times it's about 5-6 of us just being social catching up with each other. Sometimes it's a coffee run for anyone who wants coffee. Divers stop in all the time just to say hi, not even looking for any equipment. I've spent 2-3 hrs in the shop just talking and trying to pry myself away. It's always one more story...

The owner knows his success is not so much what the shop looks like or the equipment he sells as much as it is the warm, welcoming atmosphere that permeates the shop. While other shops have closed in the area, he has thrived.

 

[Agility]

There are 26 dive shops in Vienna and I have seen many of them. The only shop I regularily go to offers a place to sit and chat, to meet other divers and make appointments for the weekend. They also offer a sort of informal meeting once a week in the evening with the opportunity to discuss problems with senior divers, DMs and affilated instructors or just to have a good time.
Sometimes I do drop into another shop, if it is on my way anyway because they offer free air fills if you display their logo on your tank.
Of course they have the Zipper wax and McNett cleaning utensils displayed directly beside the fill whips .
The only reason for me to go to any other shop would be the opportunity to get fills on Sunday but that is not possible in Vienna

 

[3D diver]

The dive shop I took my first cert course from when I was a kid was out on a pier somewhere in Long Beach. They totally ripped us off...but the smell of that place was wonderful. Salt air, pool chlorine, and neoprene says Dive Shop to me.

 

[Centrals]

A knowledgeable and helpful staff is far more important than anything else.

 

[lv2dive]

Blue may have "outmaneuvered" Orange in SOME way by making stores more attractive, but when it comes to the bottom line... the analysts are still betting Orange *
Home Depot Versus Lowe's: What Three Analysts Are Saying | Benzinga

How that relates to dive shops is, people are looking for different things where they shop, as has been evinced in this thread already. If I was near Jim L, I'd be stopping by there vs. the local rec shops, for what I need, for sure.

For a rough analogy, over two thirds of home improvement store customers have traditionally been men, yet it's been said by industry observers that Lowe's outmaneuvered Home Depot by making their stores more attractive to women.

*full disclosure - i work for HD, had to respond, because I had not heard of any report that competition due to being "more attractive to women" was causing a problem.

 

[Tigerman]

Its fine if it looks like a garage, as long as its an orderly one.
Infact my "semi-local dive shop" IS a garage combined with an office space thats being used as a shop. That said, rec diving is not their main busisness - S&R of various kinds is..

 

[lv2dive]

Another point. Where someone is, in their diving, is relevant as well. I am not really purchasing new kit at this point, and/or I'm not looking for advice. So my PRIMARY need from a dive shop is gas. Working on the assumption that it's a given, that I'd only frequent shops where I would trust the quality of the gas, , the staff is the most important consideration. Efficient, Friendly, Knowledgable about local sites/conditions. Etc.

 

[Doc]

.... put in their Nitrox maker, they ran all the little pipes that were required so that they were all PERFECTLY horizontal and PERFECTLY parallel -- I look at that and think, "That attention to detail is what I want in someone whose stuff I'm renting!"

Sometimes what we perceive is 180° off from correct.

Such "pipes" should never be "horizontal", they would be prone to collect moisture.

I really do get what you're saying, and I do realize that perception is everything, but it is amazing as to what we will swallow just because our brain works so predictably. Recent dive industry advice was: Facility should be in BLUE and WHITE. It brings to mind the Ocean, cleanliness and creates less worry about overextending your credit limit. So they said.

I started buying air and hardware from a guy's basement (Black Magic Dive Shop in Mundelein IL). Over the years, as the shop evolved (and unfortunately devolved), I noticed that what used to be in the lot was pick-up trucks with ladder racks- they got replaced by SUVs (which only off-road time occurred when the driver wandered off onto the gravel shoulder while making a phone call and adjusting the baby seat). It is no longer a working man's hobby. German sedans with tank racks in the trunk- Dr. Porsche is rolling over in his grave.

I knew I was in a dive shop when there was a salvaged dining room table in the dimly lit back, ashtray, pile of Skin Diver magazines in a milk crate, beer in the fridge- that was the original template for a FIVE STAR Training Center. Remember the series of Henderson posters with the girls in wet rubber suits? Yowzah. (Come to think of it, I actually wound-up married to one of them for a while.)

My LDS criteria (subconsciously) included a minimum of one cardboard box that you could paw through and buy outdated pieces-parts. That's how I bought my UK1200R (essentially a WMD), Cousteau 3x30 triples (Chicks Dig It factor), a USD Full Face Mask (which, thirty years later went for big $ on eBay to that guy in Florida) all for pocket change. I built my first home made BC with $6 worth of parts and an airline life vest. Not no more, eh? I love me some junk boxes, but they really are off-limits nowadays.

Up here in the frozen North.... dive shops often have two distinct product lines (like we have ski shops that convert to patio furniture stores seasonally). Selling SCUBA plus maybe Hawaiian shirts, knives (beyond diving), Military Surplus... but my local favorite is the sideline of Hot Sauce. Some people look askance at this, but if it is fun, and obviously in a similar demographic, why not?

Aesthetics is one thing, Ethics is another more common topic.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Retail and new customer contacts of a dive center should look neat and professional. Being neat and professional does not require during don dive knowledge of expertise. On site training facilities, including class room should also be neat and professional. An on site pool should be well maintained and all rental or loan equipment well maintained and sortred or hung in a neat and professional presentation. For those think ( as noted in this thread) that a dive shop that is a heap of gear in a crowded garage displays competence, I fell sorry for them. Such a facility suggests to me lack of attention, issues of equipment being properly maintained, and an attitude of indifference toward people they serve. Whether in the interior US, coastal US, Mexico, Caribbean Island, or South Pacific, I prefer a shop that is neat and professional. It is a sign of discipline, caring for equipment and people, and professionalism. My "scuba room" in the basement, with a rack of exposure suits, another rack with 5 BCD's, a peg board wall covered in fins, and clear from drawers full of lights, masks, snorkels, regs, computers and octos, and the work table and tool kit- even in my basement I keep all neat and tidy. The camera table is too. I have a lot invested in the equipment for myself and Debbie. I take care to maintain and store it properly. I want the dive center I dive with to have the same attitude toward my stuff and me. I find that how they treat their stuff is a good indicator of their attitude toward their customer's stuff and their customers.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Lorenzoid]

Blue may have "outmaneuvered" Orange in SOME way by making stores more attractive, but when it comes to the bottom line... the analysts are still betting Orange *
Home Depot Versus Lowe's: What Three Analysts Are Saying | Benzinga

How that relates to dive shops is, people are looking for different things where they shop, as has been evinced in this thread already. If I was near Jim L, I'd be stopping by there vs. the local rec shops, for what I need, for sure.





*full disclosure - i work for HD, had to respond, because I had not heard of any report that competition due to being "more attractive to women" was causing a problem.

Heh heh heh, I had forgotten you work for Home Despot. No offense intended, and I was just relating what was being said 10+ years ago. I used to bleed Orange myself. Anyway, the mention of dive shops that look like a man cave garage (or warehouse) versus those that take a broader approach to merchandising did trigger this memory.