Biggest thing killing dive shops?

[mdb]

The shops that are still here...well...some of them are a dump.
The shop itself is kind of gross, or the staff is extremely young and not very well paid. Or informed.

I've been in shops that were so pushy, and so weird that I wasn't buying
a rebreather - that they couldn't be bothered with me.

Been in shops that were constantly undercutting MSRP on gear - just to make that sale- and getting caught by the manufacturer - who then pulled their line from that shop altogether. I would love to see the data on how many shops that do that.

I think the number of stores who sell under the MSRP or MSSP is quite large, probably the majority.

Call any of the well known online SCUBA retailers and you can easily find a very good price for:
"Floor sample", "Out of box". "returned unused", "fully warranted rental" and just a plain good discount.

Distributors/Manufacturers "pull the line" normally for poor pay, and/or low volume sales, not for so
called violations of any MSRP rules.

 

[WantSomeScuba?]

I think the number of stores who sell under the MSRP or MSSP is quite large, probably the majority.

Call any of the well known online SCUBA retailers and you can easily find a very good price for:
"Floor sample", "Out of box". "returned unused", "fully warranted rental" and just a plain good discount.

Distributors/Manufacturers "pull the line" normally for poor pay, and/or low volume sales, not for so
called violations of any MSRP rules.

Were allowed some wiggle room (specifically and explicitly to compete with online stores), but for a lot of major brands, they absolutely will pin you to the wall for breaking MAPs. Now, if you move a ton of product, you may get more grace than smaller shops, but for us and our key vendors (as the largest dive shop in Alaska) we would almost certainly get a couple strikes, and then they'd yank our dealership status.

And honestly, I'm grateful for that. It allows us to remain competitive with huge online retailers without screwing over other LDS's and still giving our customers the best possible price on new gear. Especially in smaller shops--we need our dealerships more than they need us, but on the flip side, the dealer agreements we sign protect everyone.

 

[scubafanatic]

Hey, I'm disappointed too in what I see compared to high-end documentaries!
Yes, I've seen some incredible stuff, but not everywhere and not every time.

The era when you could just fall off a dive boat pretty much anywhere in the world and see cool scuba stuff is long gone. These days it typically involves expensive long flights to very remote places, usually in live aboard style ($$$$). You already have to be a seriously hooked-on-scuba person already to devote the research/ $$$ to visit such places, the easy to get to/affordable dive locations are already trashed/trashed by global warming/tourist pressure-pollution/overfishing, providing little incentive for the newbie diver to exert the extra effort/$ to reach what remains of the quality diving.

 

[gcarter]

Were allowed some wiggle room (specifically and explicitly to compete with online stores), but for a lot of major brands, they absolutely will pin you to the wall for breaking MAPs. Now, if you move a ton of product, you may get more grace than smaller shops, but for us and our key vendors (as the largest dive shop in Alaska) we would almost certainly get a couple strikes, and then they'd yank our dealership status.

And honestly, I'm grateful for that. It allows us to remain competitive with huge online retailers without screwing over other LDS's and still giving our customers the best possible price on new gear. Especially in smaller shops--we need our dealerships more than they need us, but on the flip side, the dealer agreements we sign protect everyone.

It was not MAP mentioned, it was MSRP.

 

[WantSomeScuba?]

It was not MAP mentioned, it was MSRP.

Fair point. For us, they're the same thing.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The era when you could just fall off a dive boat pretty much anywhere in the world and see cool scuba stuff is long gone. These days it typically involves expensive long flights to very remote places, usually in live aboard style ($$$$). You already have to be a seriously hooked-on-scuba person already to devote the research/ $$$ to visit such places, the easy to get to/affordable dive locations are already trashed/trashed by global warming/tourist pressure-pollution/overfishing, providing little incentive for the newbie diver to exert the extra effort/$ to reach what remains of the quality diving.

Hey man, come up to Northern California where the water is cold, the vis is low, and the divers are far and few between...and there’s a reason why.
All you need is a thick wetsuit or a drysuit and all your own stuff.
You also need to drop your standards on what you consider a “good diving spot” if you’re expecting warm water and great vis, which isn’t here. But I can tell you that the sea life in colder water is fantastic! Lots of fish life and lots of color...when you can see it.
Maybe the decline in warm tropical locations is what might finally put California diving on the map?
We have MPA’s now along many areas of the islands and state coastline. From what I’ve seen the sea life has exploded in those areas in a surprisingly short period of time.

 

[KevinNM]

Hey, I'm disappointed too in what I see compared to high-end documentaries!
Yes, I've seen some incredible stuff, but not everywhere and not every time.

It's like a friend's mother wondering why most moves are not as good as moves from the 40s, 50s and 60s. It's because all the bad movies from 50 years ago or more are never shown. The moves that remain are the greatest 10-15%. They terrible 5%, the only bad 10%, and the mediocre 50% have sunk without a trace unless you are deeply interested in film in that era. Even the pretty good 20% are rarely seen, what gets shown and people remember are the greatest films of the era. So no ,there were at least as many terrible films made then as now, it's just nobody remembers them.

It's the same for documentaries. Do they ever spend an hour showing the crew fighing with the DPV winch or everyone throwing up due to seasickness? Do you think that didn't happen? It's just that's not what people want to see. So the documentary includes the best 60 minutes from 2 months of diving.

If you could chose the best dive of your last 500 dives and were able to have students experience that I'd bet they would be awed.

 

[Trailboss123]

Hey man, come up to Northern California where the water is cold, the vis is low, and the divers are far and few between...and there’s a reason why.
All you need is a thick wetsuit or a drysuit and all your own stuff.
You also need to drop your standards on what you consider a “good diving spot” if you’re expecting warm water and great vis, which isn’t here. But I can tell you that the sea life in colder water is fantastic! Lots of fish life and lots of color...when you can see it.
Maybe the decline in warm tropical locations is what might finally put California diving on the map?
We have MPA’s now along many areas of the islands and state coastline. From what I’ve seen the sea life has exploded in those areas in a surprisingly short period of time.

Word!- You can even come down to SoCAL on any given day and see colorful and amazing sea life. All of this shot in the last 3 weeks.

 

[scubafanatic]

Hey man, come up to Northern California where the water is cold, the vis is low, and the divers are far and few between...and there’s a reason why.
All you need is a thick wetsuit or a drysuit and all your own stuff.
You also need to drop your standards on what you consider a “good diving spot” if you’re expecting warm water and great vis, which isn’t here. But I can tell you that the sea life in colder water is fantastic! Lots of fish life and lots of color...when you can see it.
Maybe the decline in warm tropical locations is what might finally put California diving on the map?
We have MPA’s now along many areas of the islands and state coastline. From what I’ve seen the sea life has exploded in those areas in a surprisingly short period of time.

There are parts of the world I boycott......places like North Korea, Cuba, and California are on my list....places with alien values, political systems that I cannot stomach or support, so while I appreciate the invite, thanks but no thanks.

 

[runsongas]

You mean a democracy that doesn't elect racists to public office?