Change of Thought

[GW Diver]

Well awhile back I thought supporting local dive shops was the way to go. Well now that I really think about it, local dive shops spend more time bashing the larger ones and the online stores. What they need to concentrate on is pushing SCUBA Diving onto people.Not pushing sales. I can name a place or 2 that all they care about is being the best. Sell, Sell, Sell. SELL Diving is what should be the thought. I stopped using my local dive shop 100% and now use it when its the last resort for trips and fills. I would rather save money on great equipment and Go diving, instead of looking at it hanging in the closet cause I cant afford to dive because I paid 150% mark up. Well I hope this doesnt offend anyone, but it more than likely will. But is it true that we need to push diving and not sales. Sales will come if we show diving is the best thing in the world to do.

 

[ScubaMike05]

*applause* Bravo!

 

[del_mo]

Two identical postings? Pretty gross generalizations. Maybe you just haven't found a "good" LDS that offers products, service and internet (and sometimes better) pricing.

 

[TerryInFlorida]

I agree you can't put all diveshops into that same category, I know you said local but the diveshop you may be happy with is local to someone. The thing I hated was a couple of my local diveshops advertise $99 certification and when they get you in thier shop they try to get you signed up before you ask too many questions about what the price actually covers... The one shop I went to had me up to $450 by the time I walked out and that was solely pool dives. They told me that I couldn't use the equipment I bought second hand unless they overhauled it @ $125 an item, a visual and/or pressure check wouldn't be good enough... But they had gear I could rent @ $100+. I hope that shop doesn't last long...

Then as I was driving back from the beach I noticed a shop having a sidewalk clearance sale and stopped in to see a lot of really great prices, asked them about certification and they were having a sale that day for that too, $235 books and all, out the door... They did a free visual and pressure check of my equipment which they had said all looked new before hand and only even checked it because I asked. They had gear that you could borrow, no charge and they told me to hang on to it until I finished the courses and dives. They are a bunch of quality guys, great shop. Since I got certified through them I also get a 10% discount... Normal price would have been $285...

We trained in a nice rec pool the first dive, second dive was a bigger nice olympic pool. Third dive was in weeki wachee at the spring, fourth dive was out of venice off of one of their dive boats @ 40'. One tank at a culvert site and the second tank at a barge where I got to see the biggest barracuda I have ever seen anywhere, the thing had to be close to five feet... Great shop, great people, great prices...

I also found a great local dive shop, so they are out there. Sorry to hear you have had such bad experience, keep looking and I would bet you can find one out there you will like...

 

[rawls]

This is one of those two-sided stories and it has been covered on a few occasions. I can definitely understand what you are saying. I have two different shops that I can compare. My LDS doesn't adopt the sell, sell, sell attitude. I have never seen one instance of the staff going up to customers who are browsing the shop and trying to sell them something. If the customer asks for help, they are glad to, but I have never seen them use it as an opportunity to sell something. Then there is another dive shop I "used" to frequent that is of the type you describe. This guy is a joke. He doesn't push diving at all. He tries to tell you what a good deal he can get you on this or that. I can always find it cheaper This is a perfect example of how he works. He has a product called "Deluxe Lens Cleaner" It has his shop's logo on it. All it is is watered down Soft Scrub. He sells it for $6.95. He probably gets about 5 bottles out of one bottle of Soft Scrub. All shops need to make money to survive. If they couldn't make money then we wouldn't have alot of LDS around. I wish all were like my LDS, but there are some that aren't. That's just life. Eat the fish and spit out the bones

 

[kensuguro]

well, after a day at IDC, I heard about a lot of stuff that actually back GW Diver's statement. Not that I'm putting down LDS, I actually support them, but it's important that LDS spend effort in providing all the 3 E's (education, equipment, and experience). In this case, the experience portion is lacking. But as far as IDC is concerned, they teach us instructor candidates to see which of the 3 E's appeals the most to a potential customer, as research shows that the three are interconnected.

Or something like that. My brain's fried from a full day of classwork so my memory's buggy.

The logic was clear tho. You get 'em to enroll in education programs because diver's with higher level education are more likely to buy major gear. You try to sell major gear to them because people who own major gear are more likely to remain active and will persue a higher level education. You take 'em diving because it retains their interest and makes them want more education or more gear, or more diving. It's one huge circle.

PADI says the circle is there to help the new diver become a more proficient diver, blah blah blah.. I think the circle's there to ensure profit for PADI no matter which direction you turn. But that's me just blabbering.

 

[AaronR103]

Unfortunately, whether we support them or not, the LDS are gonna have to change. With the prevalence of the vastly more inexpensive online stores like scubatoys or leisurepro, most LDS just can't compete. I just put together an OW class for my medical school, and while I recommended the shop that was renting their pool to us, it was hard not to recommend the much cheaper online stores to the poor medical students taking the class (we're not doctors yet and we have no money). The shops I know of that do the best are the ones that either cater to tourists in tourist areas, the ones that sell most of their merchandise online but also have a storefront, or the ones that put most of their energy into TEACHING people to dive, then keeping track of those students and getting them involved in trips and most importantly continuing classes. I think that the ones to survive the change in the industry that we are seeing right now will be those that fall into the latter two categories. Just my $.02

A

 

[GW Diver]

Two identical postings? Pretty gross generalizations. Maybe you just haven't found a "good" LDS that offers products, service and internet (and sometimes better) pricing.

It was a mistake for the 2 postings.

 

[Skeeter1097]

I have been into such pleases too. But I have been to a lot more that care. I dive out of FORCE_E in west palm Fl. Thy do make money but thy are nice about it. Good People too. Cant get gas on line aether.