Biggest thing killing dive shops?

[runsongas]

That would be more of a one time deal though. Amazon isn't selling for 80 percent off msrp every day. I have gotten 75 percent off msrp for "floor display" equipment before from the LDS.

 

[scubafanatic]

Great. Stay home then.

That still leaves me 99% of the planet to explore.....for 2018, doing a couple weeks in Nov 2018 on a Socorro's live aboard....and a couple weeks in Costa Rica on another live aboard July 2018.

 

[HantsDiver]

That would be more of a one time deal though. Amazon isn't selling for 80 percent off msrp every day. I have gotten 75 percent off msrp for "floor display" equipment before from the LDS.

The problem is that when you make offers such as "we will price match anything" you have to follow it through. The freediving fins I just bought would lose the store $200. Do you think they will do that? Amazon will lose that to clear stuff out that isn't selling. A smaller business simply can't afford too.

 

[runsongas]

It isn't a price for a new item though since it came from warehouse deals which are explicitly discounted items due to distressed packaging or cosmetic damage

 

[HantsDiver]

It isn't a price for a new item though since it came from warehouse deals which are explicitly discounted items due to distressed packaging or cosmetic damage

Who cares about packaging? I open something and then throw away the box.

Does a LDC discount if the packaging is a bit damaged?

Let's be realistic here - if something has a full manufacturers warranty and hasn't been used it's new. All consumers will see things that way. The reality is that any stock in a shop has been sitting there longer and decaying than the creased box amazon bargain.

 

[runsongas]

depending on how it was sold, it may not qualify for a full warranty. cosmetically imperfect goods are sometimes sold as-is without warranty.

 

[divinh]

I would agree that an Amazon Warehouse deal is a rarity. I'm in the midst of looking for a travel BC and I doubt it'll be as easy as looking on Amazon Warehouse and finding one right now at a huge discount. It's something to constantly check and in general, most people are not going to be doing that.

 

[Marie13]

So don't think we're all in this together. If we were, we'd all be making money, but we aren't. As long as people will work for peanuts to get into the quarry free, we'll have instructors who work cheap, because money isn't their motivation, and as long as we have shop owners traveling, they will fail, because money isn't their motivation. Shop owners need to run shops, not trips. Y'all keep holding DRIS and Dolphin up as shining examples. Ask Mike how many 2 week vacations to Palau he takes....

DRIS doesn't run overseas trips, at least not currently. The last one was in 2015 (per the website). They seem to concentrate on the Great Lakes wreck diving. And I'm not complaining...

 

[dorsal]

I actually looked into this. Forget Disney - it needs top be a serious aqua-facility. With a restaurant and LDS. It is hugely expensive to run. Heating costs (in the NE) and insurance are killer. The Italian one uses a natural fed warm spring to keep the temps up. Yes, I think that it could work but you need serious investment $ and a very carefully constructed business plan. If implemented well, you would put all the LDSs around you out of business unless an agreement was established with them. I could talk endlessly about this. SSI will allow you to do the first few dives of OW checkout etc. etc. This would steal 3/4 of the Dutch pleasure divers away in a heartbeat.

I had a similar thought process ....the brain went into engineer mode thinking through what it would take and then mba mode in trying making it work financially. Your right in the advantage the Italians have with the natural springs to have the warm water. There aren’t too many places in the states to do that.

Back to the thread. Much of the conversation is really on good business practices. I will shop local if I think I’m getting my money’s worth in either knowledge or goodwill on a piece of kit. I’m not driving 250 miles to DRIS but I’ll shop them online and ring them with questions. I’ll also shop local when I have deeper questions that they take the time to answer. I doubt that I’ll do a shop trip as the markup is too high.

Something that also struck me as odd is DEMA producing a study on typical diver demographics. That seems to say nobody learns to dive before they are 30. I’ve heard it from my younger folks that they work to live. Many have lots of sports/hobbies but interesting not many divers. Lots of bike riding and hiking just not scuba. I also hear talk of travel to warm locations and those that do scuba go for a trip or two then have fun doing other things.

 

[dorsal]

Seriously. How long was that simmering under the surface that it just kinda slips out right after an exchange about online pricing vs brick-and-mortar?

Putting one's toxic idealogy aside, I had a question as a shop owner that I've seen touched on a number of times:

Does anybody have an LDS that specifically and obviously states that they'll price match with online sites? If so, does that lead to support them more often, or do you ever feel uncomfortable asking.

If your LDS doesn't price match (or you don't know) would you support them more if they did? Have you ever gotten grief over asking?

I know pricing is only one aspect of why people (including myself) shop online, but I'm curious how other shops operate in that regard.

Not too long ago we all relied on a local business or something like consumer reports to help us consumers make a semi intelligent decisions in our purchases and costs. In those days the business owner still had most of the knowledge and we put some trust in them. In 1993 the internet started and that whole dynamic started to change. Today sources like scuba board or other online sources have mostly removed the information asymmetry in product information and pricing knowledge, which enables the consumer to make more informed decisions. So it’s more than price matching; it’s being a trusted source too. If I can visit a local shop and get similar prices to online and good information I’ll likely buy there.