OP
pauldw
Contributor
Yeah, I'm not questioning whether dive shops should be profitable. I'm just trying to get a better handle on the nuts and bolts of how they work. Because in poking around dive shops lately in conjunction with getting serious about looking at gear and more training, I can't figure out how some of them are staying in business. And many aren't. As far as I know, there's not a single dive shop currently open on the Oregon or Washington coast, and hardly any in northern California (having been born in Eureka, I don't consider the Bay Area part of northern California). So I'm all for supporting local dive shops. But I still am mystified by how they work. As far as money, I'd hoped to gift a couple of OW lessons this year, but the local shops have both jacked prices and aren't even doing the holiday discounts they used to do for multiple lesson getters, so I can't do what I can't do; prices are their call and I'm not saying it's the wrong call. But when dive shops are disappearing, I begin to wonder where tanks will get filled.
To my original question, it seems like dive shops do three things: train divers, sell gear, and organize group dives. That first thing I don't think can be outsourced (although I guess some people do their training on vacation), so hopefully that'll help local dive shops stay around. But it also seems that their main training thing is OW courses. Almost all dive shops I've seen have web pages that provide identical information on training, consisting of the PADI (or whatever) flowchart, even though they don't offer most of that training. I'd prefer they say what they offer, and when, and provide specific-to-that-dive-shop information on what's needed to take the course, and what's provided (for example, if they include rental gear with AOW they should say so, or if they're offering a diver propulsion vehicle course they should explain whether people need to already own a scooter). Still, it seems like demand for additional training is so low that there aren't many post-OW courses. Perhaps if more people could afford gear, that would motivate a greater desire for training. And if dive shops marketed themselves. Perhaps it's too expensive to advertise, but at least they could go through their site and get rid of their dead or outdated web pages, and ask if what is there provides interesting and useful information or just fits some template. It also sounds as if it's hard enough to become an instructor, and the shops are paying them so little, that there's an issue there too.
Regarding gear, of course shops are still getting money for mask and fins and whatnot. But maybe not much more. There's a surprising package on sale, but not advertised, at one dive shop in my state that I find very enticing, and has pulled me away from looking at online SCUBA. It was a problem that the sales person didn't know much about the gear when I went in; the reason I'd spend more at a local shop is for service (here's an example of not service: years ago, after getting my daughter a major manufacturer's fins from a local shop that said they'd order the matching mask and snorkel, the shop then said they couldn't get them and so would have to provide them in a non matching color--that's just cheesy, and doesn't inspire loyalty). But I'm still going to look at that package again, hopefully when someone else is in the shop. There are shops that just don't stock much gear, and what they do stock are often not names I recognize, for reasons other people here have explained in this thread, and I don't see the point of walking into those shops. I understand they're between a rock and a hard place. It makes me wonder if the manufacturers aren't thinking things through, because they need to inject some sense into the system too if it's going to work at all, much less if it's to ever take off. Because gear is the thing without which there is no diving. And limiting provision of gear to actual dive shops seems counterproductive.
The third thing, group dives, might work to some degree as a moneymaker to keep dive shops afloat. Perhaps a local club would help non-solitary people get into diving more and spending more. Perhaps tourism trips, which every shop seems to advertise, will keep them afloat, but I doubt it. Travel agencies have died, and a lot of people don't need a dive shop to plan their travel for them either.
So, I appreciate all the insights people have offered. I've learned a lot. Thank you. I'm a little pessimistic, and bemused by the fact that outdoor recreation has taken off so vigorously in recent years but sport diving doesn't seem to have kept pace. But what is, is.
And as far as people who don't like cold water, I enjoy the expansive view of a warm coral reef with big and colorful fish, but I also like climbing down the rocks in the Northwest US and sliding into a surge channel and spending time just looking at a small bit of rock covered by wee little invertebrates like tube worms and nudibranchs. Feels more like home, too.
