Curious: Are you LDS loyal? What do you use them for?

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Yes I think I can do the math. 30 miles round trip. 30 minutes highway driving, at least an hour in the city. :)
 
And all for nothing!! Grrrr...... Someone needs to open a dive shop near me..... Or divegearexpress needs to ship to aus for freeeeee!!


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My LDS you can fill your tanks 24/7. He has an honor system. Touch screen computer where you enter the gas and products and pay with paypal any time of day 365 days a year. Owner will show you how to work the cascade system to fill your own tanks with either banked nitrox, oxygen or air.

Amigos Fort White Florida Dive Center.


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Wow. Now that is a bloody great idea!!!!!


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My LDS you can fill your tanks 24/7. He has an honor system. Touch screen computer where you enter the gas and products and pay with paypal any time of day 365 days a year. Owner will show you how to work the cascade system to fill your own tanks with either banked nitrox, oxygen or air.

Amigos Fort White Florida Dive Center.


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da6u3a8y.jpg

... but Wayne is catering to a knowledgeable crowd of almost exclusively cave divers who live in an area where everybody knows everybody. That business model don't work too well in most places where people dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I support UPS....

LDS gets vip's, hydro, air/nitrox (17 tanks make them some money), an emergency repair or purchase, service if I'm too busy, training, & an occasional trip. Almost everything else (equipment) is outsourced....
 
What pisse4s me off about most LDS's is that they bitch about people who buy gear online. They have a point, in that they need to pay bills too, and online retailers can undercut almost any LDS because they buy in BULK..due to high volume sales. My problem is this...Get with the times! Quit bitching about online retailers and freaking become one! you can still have your brick and mortar, but will be able to give ALL your customers great pricing because you are selling online as well. Your profits will go through the roof, and the local divers(your customer base for the brick and mortar) will have no reason to NOT buy from you(assuming you arent a dive snob or a piss poor people person). LDS's are bringing these "loyalty" issues upon themselves.

Now with that being said, I am loyal to my LDS until they try to take me for 15% or more than an online retailer can provide gear to me(Mind you I am getting a 35% instructor discount from the LDS and no discount from the online retailer).
 
I am quite loyal to my LDS, but that doesn't mean I don't order things online as well. If I need some specialty hardware or I see a special deal, it makes sense to order. My LDS doesn't feel betrayed, they understand basic economics. I don't order crap off of ebay and cart it into my LDS for them to review. I have seen a ton of junk such as bad regulators (scratched first stage internals) brought in and I think regs/gear coming off of ebay with no warranty are a poor investment.

I am lucky that my LDS can usually smoke any online price, including gray market and group buyers like LeisurePro, especially on large ticket items like regs, bc's, wings, etc.

The best advantage I get from my LDS is the community that goes with it. We have a great group of very active divers. We dive every weekend and do several trips a year. Our club meets every month and we do fund raising projects for Adaptive Divers, scholarships for people that want to learn to dive but don't have the means and other good causes. This creates a diving family that we are proud of and its because of our LDS. That earns my loyalty.
 
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I am lucky that my LDS can usually smoke any online price, including gray market and group buyers like LeisurePro, especially on large ticket items like regs, bc's, wings, etc.
. . .

Some LDSs manage to meet or beat on-line prices yet others can't?
 

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