Biggest thing killing dive shops?

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Crap move or not, they do it. What is the retailer going to do about it is the question? It sounds like the poster may have said something to the store clerk who may have had the opportunity to match price. I agree that bringing something back is a crap move, but it is incumbent on the B&M to ensure that they want the opportunity to meet any price for in stock items. I don't mean meeting the scratch and dent at Amazon.com

The retailer can’t do a thing. You heard about the woman who returned to Costco the Christmas tree on January 4th or something because it was dead? Some people have a lot of nerve.

 

[Brian G]

Well certainly a shopper using a local shop to look at the product and try it on for size, then leaving and buying the product online is helping kill the local shop. The costs of running a local shop are just higher than an online shop. Retail space is more expensive than warehouse space. You can move more product per employee by moving your shipping staff to the phones when they get busy and phone staff to shipping when it's light. Online retailers have a larger customer base to offer product to, so can manage lower margins, plus they get discounts for buying more product.

My local "shop" solves these problems by being run out of his garage. He's retired from a "real" job so he doesn't need to make much money. I would guess he makes most of his money by teaching classes, but he has a pretty good stock of Zeagle, Atomic, and Bare that he sells (he'll typically match online prices, but he doesn't guilt me into anything if he can't) so I hope he is making enough money off of it to afford his thousands of dollars in inventory. His shop hours suck though, so sometimes it's a bit of a struggle to get stuff from him. The last local shop I worked with was in Carson City and the owner was rude, pompous, self-centered, etc. He definitely pushed me into online shopping, and I would drive an hour each way to get fills.

 

[mdb]

The so called "Grey Market" is not really that "Grey".

"Authorized Dealers" sell to other retailers, brand new gear, in factory packaging.

They do so to get the largest volume discounts from the distributor/manufacturer.

They get the wink and the nod from the supplier and off it goes.

Truth is that every large online retailer is "Authorized" one way or the other, these
days mostly direct.

 

[mdb]

The retailer can’t do a thing. You heard about the woman who returned to Costco the Christmas tree on January 4th or something because it was dead? Some people have a lot of nerve.

I knew a scammer who would buy a camera, use it on vacation and then return it for a full refund.

He thought it was cool to do so.

I thought he was a jerk.

 

[runsongas]

These days, should I have an expectation that a LDS present me with info that would best suit me or best suit what they have on hand to sell?

With the internet, I can do all my research online and buy online. Wouldn't it make sense for the LDS to focus on service and not so much on gear sales?

few shops have the experience to specialize in servicing gear like airtech or gamble scuba, short term profitability is lower than new gear, and there are only some cases where the repair is economical vs buying new.

 

[HantsDiver]

The retailer can’t do a thing. You heard about the woman who returned to Costco the Christmas tree on January 4th or something because it was dead? Some people have a lot of nerve.

They could. They could not let people try something on until they have paid for it - and then they get to try the different sizes to see what they like. However, that wouldn't be a smart business decision. They could charge an entry fee to enter the store - but that usually isn't a smart business decision either.

With traditional retail you have the pain of people using your store as an outlet to try things to buy elsewhere. With e-retail, you have to deal with far more customer returns and things going missing in the post. Both have there pros and cons.

If (and I never will) I owned a shop I'd be happy for people to come in and try stuff. I'd want high footfall. Even if they didn't buy that product from my they might buy something else. It's a numbers game.

 

[muzikbiz22]

The so called "Grey Market" is not really that "Grey".

"Authorized Dealers" sell to other retailers, brand new gear, in factory packaging.

They do so to get the largest volume discounts from the distributor/manufacturer.

They get the wink and the nod from the supplier and off it goes.

Truth is that every large online retailer is "Authorized" one way or the other, these
days mostly direct.

Isn't that referred to as "Trans-Shipping", and more frowned upon by manufacturers ?

 

[boulderjohn]

They could. They could not let people try something on until they have paid for it - and then they get to try the different sizes to see what they like. However, that wouldn't be a smart business decision. They could charge an entry fee to enter the store - but that usually isn't a smart business decision either.

The problem with charging before trying it on is that I have frequently tried a bunch of things on (in different kinds of stores) before deciding that nothing was right for me.

What I have heard some stores do is charge a fee for trying something on, a fee that is totally refundable upon purchase. That runs into the same problem as above--what if it legitimately will not work for a hard to fit person? A friend of mine with a very narrow face literally tried every mask in a dive shop without finding one that was really right for him. He bought one at a different shop, a brand and model that the first store did not carry. If he had had to pay the shop without getting anything for it, he would never go back to that shop again.

 

[mdb]

Isn't that referred to as "Trans-Shipping", and more frowned upon by manufacturers ?

The manufacturers don't object; they love the sales.

It is just a way some like to tell their "Authorized Dealers"-Oh, we don't sell to them, we don't know how they get the product..

That is BS, of course. They know exactly where the "Grey Market" retailer got the product.

 

[Wookie]

They could. They could not let people try something on until they have paid for it - and then they get to try the different sizes to see what they like. However, that wouldn't be a smart business decision. They could charge an entry fee to enter the store - but that usually isn't a smart business decision either.

With traditional retail you have the pain of people using your store as an outlet to try things to buy elsewhere. With e-retail, you have to deal with far more customer returns and things going missing in the post. Both have there pros and cons.

If (and I never will) I owned a shop I'd be happy for people to come in and try stuff. I'd want high footfall. Even if they didn't buy that product from my they might buy something else. It's a numbers game.

Someone mentioned earlier the store with beer. See, I can't go in a store without buying something. So, there I was int he store drinking beer and chatting, and the owner offered me a deal on DIR knives, which look suspiciously like a broken steak knife. I could have them for "cost" if I'd just take both of them. I still have them, they have never been in the water.

I'm sure that couple of beers has more than paid for itself.